Most of this year’s field at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts have packed their bags and gone home, leaving the last few teams to battle it out for the Canadian women’s curling title.
The remaining rinks – five playoff teams and two more set to battle in a tiebreaker – are a mix of perennial contenders, up-and-comers and a few teams that have never played this deep into the prestigious tournament.
Curling Canada implemented a six-team playoff and expanded the field at this year’s Scotties after numerous provincial playdowns were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Canada’s Kerri Einarson and Wild Card 1’s Tracy Fleury finished first in their respective pools following round-robin play, earning byes to the four-team page playoff.
The second and third-place teams in each pool will cross over to play each other in an elimination game. Winners move on to the page seeding round while the losers go home.
The winners of the page seeding round will then meet in the 1 vs. 2-page playoff while the losers battle in the do-or-die 3 vs. 4-game.
Let’s take a closer look at the playoff field.
Ready and Waiting
Canada (Kerri Einarson) Record: 8-0
The two-time defending champions have been the most consistent team this week in Thunder Bay. No question.
Kerri Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Brianne Meilleur won all eight of their games in the preliminary round, capped by an amazing comeback over Mackenzie Zacharias and Team Manitoba Thursday night. Team Einarson gave up a rare five-spot in the second end, but would battle back, highlighted by a score of four in the fifth, to stun the 2020 world junior champs, 10-7.
“We just clawed back and kept putting pressure on them,” said Einarson.
Team Canada looks like a team that wants to make history, shooting a Scotties-leading 86 per cent collectively with Einarson throwing at a red-hot 87 per cent clip and Sweeting at 88 per cent.
The rink from Gimli, Man., are looking to win a third straight national title which would put them in elite company, joining the likes of Jennifer Jones (2008-2010), Colleen Jones (2001-2004, four in a row) and Vera Pezer (1971-1973). Einarson, 34, has been in three of the last four Scotties finals, leading Fleury’s current team to the 2018 championship game in Penticton before falling to Team Jones. In fact, Birchard played for Jones that year as a spare for Kaitlyn Lawes and can win a fourth career Scotties title this weekend in Thunder Bay.
The Scotties championship will go through Team Einarson one way or another.
Wild Card 1 (Tracy Fleury) Record: 7-1
Tracy Fleury returned just in time to clinch first-place in Pool A.
Fleury was placed in COVID-19 protocols ahead of last Friday’s Draw 1 and wasn’t able to return until Thursday afternoon, helping Wild Card 1 beat Northern Ontario to earn a bye to the page playoffs.
Wild Card 1, with Selena Njegovan calling the game and throwing skips stones, lost their opener on Friday to New Brunswick, but would reel off six in a row in Fleury’s absence.
Njegovan is shooting 82 per cent this week in Thunder Bay.
“The three girls have been unbelievable all week,” Njegovan said on Wednesday. “They have had so much confidence in me and believed in me going up to skip. As everyone knows, this isn’t my preferred position, so they’ve been so great in front of me and making it easy for me on my last two.”
Njegovan’s sister-in-law, Robyn Njegovan, was expecting to be the alternate for Team Fleury at the Scotties but instead filled in at vice and shot 80 per cent over seven games.
Fleury didn’t look too rusty in her one and only game on Thursday, finishing with at an 85 per cent shooting percentage.
“I’m happy to be back and reunited with the girls,” said Fleury after the win. “I was a little worried coming in, but it helps that the ice is so fantastic and get a feel for a couple of draws and get your confidence, but once I got back out there with the girls it felt natural.”
Fleury and company were a win away from representing Canada at the Beijing Olympics but lost to Team Jones in the final earlier this season. Capturing their first Scotties title would help lessen the sting from that loss considerably.
Team Fleury will take on the winner of Nova Scotia’s Christina Black and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville in the page seeding round on Friday night.
Playoff Matchups
New Brunswick (Andrea Crawford, 6-2) vs. winner of tiebreaker between Northwest Territories-Manitoba
In her 10th career appearance at the Tournament of Hearts, 36-year-old Andrea Crawford will get the opportunity to play in her first playoff game after putting together an impressive 6-2 week in Thunder Bay.
Crawford, who now has 100 career Scotties games under her belt, had never finished better than 6-5. They won their first five games before dropping two of their last three in Thunder Bay.
“This team has worked really hard. The last few years we’ve just started to put more time on the ice, more time off the ice, working very hard physically,” said Crawford after clinching the playoffs earlier this week. “We just came into this event believing we had the ability to play well, and I think that has made a big difference for us.”
Sylvie Quillian, who has skipped the eastern province at four previous Scotties, joined the team this season and has proven to be a very valuable addition as Team Crawford has won 25 out of 30 games this season.
New Brunswick will play the winner of the tiebreaker between Northwest Territories’ Team Kerry Galusha and Manitoba’s Team Zacharias, who both finished round-robin play with identical 5-3 records.
This matchup is also an interesting one.
Like Crawford, Galusha has never qualified for the Scotties playoffs in 18 previous appearances. The only time the territory qualified for the Scotties playoffs was in 1983 when Shelly Bildfell led the joint Northwest Territories/Yukon team to an 8-2 record in the round robin before losing to Cathy Shaw and Team Alberta in the semifinals.
Due to an injury suffered last year inside the Calgary bubble, Galusha calls the game, but throws leads stone while Jo-Ann Rizzo serves as the team’s fourth.
On the other side of the sheet will be Team Zacharias, making just their second appearance at the national championship after winning the world junior title in 2020.
Either rink making the playoffs will add some intrigue going into championship weekend.
The winner of Crawford vs. Galusha/Zacharias will take on Team Einarson in the page seeding round Friday night.
Northern Ontario (Krista McCarville, 5-3) vs. Nova Scotia (Christina Black, 5-3)
Another Scotties, another playoff appearance for Northern Ontario’s Team Krista McCarville.
The hometown Thunder Bay foursome have now made the Scotties playoffs in all five of their appearances dating back to 2016.
Team McCarville dropped their preliminary round finale Thursday afternoon against Team Fleury. A win would have given them first-place and a bye to the page playoffs.
“We like to take the hard road,” McCarville told the media. “Obviously we wanted to get first place, but we do feel successful. We are in the playoffs and we’re starting our next goal. We just have to keep it rolling form here.”
McCarville won’t have to worry about facing Rachel Homan this year as the Ottawa skip is competing at the Beijing Olympics with mixed doubles partner John Morris. Homan has eliminated McCarville in the playoffs at their past three Scotties.
Must See: Black scores three in eighth end
Watch as Nova Scotia skip Christina Black makes a beauty shot to score three points in the eighth end. Despite the loss, Nova Scotia advances to the playoffs.
The path to their first Scotties title will first need to go through Nova Scotia’s Team Christina Black, another east coast rink having a solid week.
Black, 34, won a bronze medal at the 2018 Scotties as a third for Mary-Anne Arsenault and has now taken the reigns of her own team.
Team Black has a collective shooting percentage of 77 per cent this week, compared to Team McCarville’s 78 per cent. Black has the edge at skip, shooting 76 per cent, four better than McCarville.
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.
