Manitoba's Einarson, Nova Scotia's Black keep playoff race tight at Hearts

Mantoba's Kerri Einarson delivers a rock in Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling action against Newfoundland and Labrador in Thunder Bay, Ont. on Saturday, February 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Kerri Einarson's curling team from Manitoba claimed a top playoff seed at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after scrambling hard to get there.

Einarson, who skipped her teams to four straight Canadian women's curling championships from 2020 to 2023, trailed at the fifth-end break in three of her four straight wins to cap pool play.

"We're definitely excited to be in this position because it wasn't looking like that early on in the week," Einarson said Thursday night.

"It definitely hasn't been easy. We haven't made it easy on ourselves. We're trending in the right direction, and I think we're getting hot at the right time."

Einarson, Nova Scotia's Christina Black and Ontario's Danielle Inglis went 6-2 to advance from a tough Pool B and were seeded in that order.

Defending champion Rachel Homan carried a 8-0 record atop Pool A into Friday's championship round followed by Alberta's Kayla Skrlik and B.C.'s Corryn Brown at 6-2. Skrlik ranked higher because of a win over Brown in the preliminary round.

Homan faces Black, and Einarson meets Skrlik on Friday afternoon. The victors advance into Saturday's Page playoff between the top two seeds.

On Friday evening, the loser of Homan versus Black takes on B.C.'s Brown, and the loser of Einarson versus Skrlik faces Inglis.

The winners meet in Saturday's Page playoff between the third and fourth seeds and the losers are eliminated.

Sunday's winner at the Fort William Gardens represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea, and earns $100,000 in prize money.

Einarson started the tournament 2-2 before escaping with wins against Kate Cameron and Black when trailing by large margins after five ends.

"When we were tested, we came out and made those clutch shots when we needed," the skip said.

Einarson downed fellow-Manitoban Kaitlyn Lawes 9-6 on Thursday night.

Halifax Curling Club's Black, who reached the final four two years ago in Kamloops, B.C., defeated Cameron 8-6.

"I'm a lot mentally tougher than I was two years ago," Black said. "You just know what it's like to be out there in the playoff round. It's different than the round robin, less people out there and the games are tough. You just have to be able to maintain your focus for such a long period of time. It's such a grind."

Inglis and teammates out of the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club were 9-3 winners over Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories. They went 3-5 in their Hearts debuts last year in Calgary.

"We're the underdogs because the eyes aren't really on us," Inglis said. "Especially with the way our season had played out so far, I think coming in here, might have been underestimated by a few people, and I think that's a good place to be."

Homan wanted her Ottawa Curling Club team to finish pool play strong in an 8-4 win over Alberta's Selena Sturmay, and continue scouting rock movement and ice behaviour heading into the next round.

"It was the opportunity to play on those middle sheets, learn the ice and the rocks, how we need to play moving forward," said Homan.

"Unfortunately, it's pretty straight out there. Can be a bit frustrating at times, but this is the ice conditions that we have in this building. Just learning to love them as much as we can and learn them as best we can, how we need to sweep them, how to approach shots and just trying to stay in the moment of every rock."

Skrlik downed Nunavut's Julia Weagle 7-4 and Brown beat Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo 9-2 in the final Pool A draw.

Skrlik skipped a slightly different lineup to a 4-4 record in her Hearts debut two years ago in Kamloops, B.C.

With Margot Flemming coming on board for this season at third, sister Ashton and Geri-Lynn Ramsay shifting positions and the latter holding the broom for Skrlik, the Garrison Curling Club foursome out of Calgary played 13 events this season to forge team chemistry.

Skrlik reached the final of September's single knockout PointsBet Invitational in Calgary where the team fell 8-3 to Homan.

"I think this is our 79th or 80th game of the season, so we've played a lot," said Skrlik. "It's been very, very beneficial this year, with Margot being new in the lineup, Ashton being in a new position, and Geri-Lyn being in a new position.

"We've gone from our first time showing up, playing the Scotties, not playing almost a single team in the field, to playing quite a few of these teams. It's really, really paid off."

Brown, who is almost six months pregnant, reached the playoffs for the first time in the tournament's current format.

Her Kamloops Curling Club lineup includes Erin Pincott, Sarah Koltun and Samantha Fisher.

"This is the most relaxed we've ever played," Brown said. "I don't think any of us have really felt kind of the nerves. We've had some really good kind of guidance from (coach) Jim (Cotter) and our sports psychologist Tracey Bilsky, to kind of guide us through that."

Fisher topped all leads at 93 per cent shooting accuracy in pool play.

"The lead can either make it really hard or really easy, and Sam's done a fabulous job all week to kind of lead the way for us and really kind of put us in a really good position in all games," said Brown.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press