Andrea Crawford thought she had the win until Krista McCarville snatched it away.
McCarville’s rink from Northern Ontario battled back from a four-point deficit to steal a point in the extra end to defeat Crawford’s New Brunswick team 9-8 Saturday night and earn a trip to the final of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
McCarville made two brilliant shots in the eighth end to climb back into the Page playoff 1 versus 2 game at the Canadian women’s curling championship in Thunder Bay, Ont. Crawford had a chance to win on her last rock but she hit and rolled out, giving McCarville the victory.
“We always say we’re never going to give up,” said McCarville. “If we can take them to the 10th end we’ve done our job even if we lose.
“We’re good at battling and that’s what we did. We knew we could work our magic. That three in the eighth really gave us that jump we needed.”
The Northern Ontario team of third Kendra Lilly, second Ashley Sippala and lead Sarah Potts will play the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between Crawford and Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada.
Crawford opened the scoring drawing with two in the first end. McCarville used her last rock in the second end to remove two New Brunswick stones to count three.
Crawford regained the lead with another draw for two in the third. In the fourth, she heaved a sigh of relief after navigating a narrow port to remove a Northern Ontario stone. McCarville missed the following takeout, giving New Brunswick a steal of one and a 5-3 lead.
Crawford stole another point in the fifth when McCarville’s last-rock draw was light and kissed a guard coming into the house. Northern Ontario gave up another point in the seventh after missing on a long raise.
Northern Ontario rallied in the eighth end. McCarville removed two New Brunswick stones with a raise on her first shot, then took out another on her final to score three points and slash the lead to 7-6.
Crawford had a chance for two in the ninth but had to settle for a single when she came up short on a draw. That made the score 8-6 but gave McCarville the hammer in the 10th end.
McCarville scored two in the 10th to force the extra end.
A disappointed Crawford said her rink has to prepare for Sunday’s semifinal.
“My team played really well,” she said. “I just missed a few key shots.
“We’ve had other tough games, you need to be able to park those. I’m confident we’ll be able to do that.”
McCarville, the hometown favourite who plays out of the Fort Williams Curling Club, drew cheers all night from the crowd of around 275 allowed into the building under COVID-19 protocols.
“It would mean the world to win it here,” said McCarville. “It would be the most amazing dream in the world.”
Crawford, appearing in her first playoffs in her 10th trip to the Scotties, finished the round-robin portion of the tournament second in Pool A with a 6-3 record.
The last rink from New Brunswick to reach the Scotties playoffs was Heidi Hanlon, who lost the 1991 final to B.C.’s Julie Sutton. The only New Brunswick rink to win a Canadian women’s curling championship was skipped by Mabel DeWare in 1963.
McCarville, making her ninth Scotties appearance, was third in Pool A at 5-3. She lost in the 2016 final to Chelsea Carey’s Alberta rink and finished third in 2010.
Einarson, the two-time defending champion, kept her dream of a three-peat alive with a 11-6 win over Tracy Fleury’s Wild Card 1 rink in the Page 3 versus 4 game Saturday afternoon.
That match turned in the sixth end when Fleury missed on a chip shot. With her last stone, Einarson calmly took out Fleury’s rock to score four points and take an 8-5 lead. It was the 14th time during the tournament Team Canada scored three or more points in an end.
Einarson sealed the win by stealing two in the next end.
“We made all our shots,” said Einarson. “We got a couple of misses out of them.
“We’ve been playing really all week putting lots of pressure on the opponent.”
Mistakes cost Fleury.
“I just had a couple of misses at the wrong time and Team Canada capitalized and they made a lot of shots,” she said.
Einarson’s rink of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur from Gimli, Man., were a perfect 8-0 during the round robin before losing 8-6 to Crawford in a playoff game Friday night. They are looking to join an elite group of rinks to win three consecutive titles.
Saskatchewan’s Vera Pezer won three titles between 1971 and 1973 while Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones won championships between 2008 and 2010. Colleen Jones of Nova Scotia won four consecutive titles beginning in 2001.
Fleury’s team of third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish from the East St. Paul Curling Club in Manitoba finished first in Pool A during the round robin with a 7-1 record. They lost 8-3 to Northern Ontario Friday night.
Fleury didn’t play her first game of the championship until Thursday after being forced to isolate following a positive COVID-19 test before the tournament. Njegovan took over the skipping duties for the team that leads both the Canadian and world rankings.
Due to COVID-19 concerns the round-robin portion of the tournament was held in an empty Fort Williams Gardens without fans or media in the building. A limited number of volunteers registered for the competition and junior curlers from the area were allowed to attend the playoffs.
The Scotties champion will represent Canada at the 2022 Women’s Curling Championship in Prince George, B.C., from March 19-27.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2022.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
