Team Alberta hangs on late to defeat Ontario 9-8 and advance at the Scotties

Kayla Skrlik and her Alberta rink advanced to the quarter-finals at the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating Ontario 9-8 Friday night. (Photo: X@TSNCurling)

Kayla Skrlik and her Alberta rink are in the final four of the Scotties tournament of Hearts after pulling out a pulsating 9-8 victory over Ontario’s Danielle Inglis Friday night.

Leading 9-6 in the tenth end, with Ontario lying three, Skrlik knocked out one rock to hang on for the win on a long, difficult day that started with a 7-4 loss to Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson.

Skrlik, 27, whose team curls out of Garrison Club in Calgary, skipped a team to the final four on her second try after her debut in Kamloops two years ago.

“Oh, my God, it’s so exciting,” Skrlik said. “We had such a long day here. I think we’ve been here since like, 11 a.m. or something or noon, so to win now, it means quite a bit to us.”

There won’t be much time to rejuvenate, as Alberta is set to take on Nova Scotia’s Christina Black Saturday at 11 a.m. MST in the Page three-four playoff.

Black’s rink defeated B.C. 10-5 after she lost by the same score to Rachel Homan earlier in the day.

“The last time, getting to the final four was a bit of a surprise,” Black said. “This time, we kind of expected to be in the final four. Would have been disappointing if we weren’t.”

The loser of that one is eliminated while the winner moves on to the semi-finals Sunday against the loser of the showdown between Einarson and Rachel Homan, who between them have won eight Scotties titles over the past decade.

Homan and Einarson play at 5 p.m. MST.

Team Einarson is the only Canadian rink to have beaten Team Homan this season.

“It’s nice to have that second life,” Homan said, after defeating Nova Scotia 10-5 earlier Friday. “We’ve got to win two more games,” Homan said. “However that happens, that’s our focus, is just staying in the moment, trying to learn and get better every end.”

The odds of either Skrlik or Black winning aren’t great: the team that takes the Page one-two game has won the final 62 per cent of the time, or 18 out of 29 times since the Page format was introduced.

Long odds don’t matter much to Skrlik. Her rink is in the final four and you never know what might happen on any given Saturday at the Scotties.

“This has been a goal of ours, right from when we came together as a team, to be in the playoffs for the Scotties,” Skrlik said, “and now to be in the three-four game, we’re super, super excited to be there.”

With files from The Canadian Press