KAMLOOPS — Kerri Einarson heads into the Canadian women’s curling championship playoffs in command of her bid for a fourth straight title.

The lone unbeaten team at 7-0 got there with bold tactics and precise shot execution, plus an understanding of changing ice conditions in Kamloops, B.C.

The first team to attempt a Scotties Tournament of Hearts quadruple since Colleen Jones from 2001 to 2004 knows the level of execution required to do it.

“I think we’re close,” Einarson said Thursday. “Not quite there yet, but I know now that we’ve got a feeling out there of what the ice is going to be like to continue.

“I think we’ll have a really good handle on it.”

Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Harris from Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club held off Kayla Skrlik’s tenacious Alberta rink 9-8 to extend their winning streak.

With one game remaining in Pool A at night against winless Nunavut, Einarson was poised to go undefeated in her group a second straight year.

“We’re happy with our start to the event, but definitely there’s still a lot left to do here,” Sweeting said.

Six teams — three from each pool — from the field of 18 advanced to Friday’s championship round.

Four teams were playoff-bound with a five-way race for the remaining two berths still in play Thursday evening.

Einarson, last year’s finalist Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario, Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones and Ontario’s Rachel Homan advanced.

Ontario’s 5-3 win over New Brunswick early Thursday propelled three-time Hearts winner Homan into the next round as the third seed in Pool B behind McCarville and Jones, both 7-1.

“That was a huge win for our team,” Homan said. “That was really strong showing. We still had some misses but we made some big ones when it counted.”

With identical records, McCarville earned the higher seed atop Pool B over Jones by virtue of Northern Ontario’s win over Manitoba in the tournament’s opening draw.

Homan posted a 6-2 record with a 9-5 win over Casey Scheidegger’s wild card team in the afternoon.

A playoff berth already in the bag gave pregnant Ontario lead Sarah Wilkes a breather.

Alternate Kira Brunton drew into the lineup against Scheidegger.

Finishing first in their respective pools provide Einarson and McCarville byes to Friday’s championship finals, which seeds the final four for Saturday’s Page playoff.

They also avoid the sudden-death elimination games between the second and third seeds earlier that day.

Manitoba and Ontario awaited the pool-play finale to deliver their next opponents from the bunch still in contention.

Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges (5-2) and four teams at 4-3 — Alberta, Nova Scotia’s Christina Black, B.C.’s Clancy Grandy, Kaitlyn Lawes’s wild card 1 — created the scenario for a Pool A tiebreaker game Friday morning.

“I think this is the strongest field we’ve ever had and I’ve ever seen,” Homan said. “It’s awesome to go out there and have to play your best every game. That’s what a nationals should be.”

Snow and rain outside the Sandman Centre over the opening days of the tournament gave way to cold, dry temperatures by Thursday, which Homan says made for more consistent ice conditions.

“Thankfully, the cold came in and frost is gone now,” the skip said. “Lots of really great shots made all over the board and you can really trust the ice right now.”

An incentive for Einarson to go undefeated was earning hammer to start the first end of all playoff games, as well as first choice of a set of rocks.

The semifinal and final are Sunday.

The Hearts winner represents Canada at the world championship March 18-26 in Sandviken, Sweden, and returns to the 2024 national championship in Calgary as the defending champion.

The victor also earns $108,000 from a total prize purse of $300,000 and is eligible for Sport Canada “carding”‘ money as part of Curling Canada’s national-team program.

Six-time Canadian champion Jones capped the preliminary round by beating New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly 8-5.

Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories finished with a record of 4-4.

New Brunswick’s Kelly, Scheidegger and Meghan Walter’s wild-card 3 were 3-5, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis 2-6 and Yukon’s Hailey Birnie 1-7.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2023

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