ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — Two-time Canadian champ Rachel Homan believes her experience playing in the Scotties Tournament of Heart final will help her finally get past Michelle Englot in Sunday’s gold medal game.
The Ottawa native emerged victorious 7-5 in the Battle of Ontario against northern provincial rival Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay in Saturday night’s semifinal at the Meridian Centre.
Homan will face Englot’s Manitoba team for the third time in four nights only now with the title on the line. Manitoba topped Ontario 9-5 Thursday to conclude their round-robin play — with both teams finishing atop of the standings at 10-1 — and scored a 9-8 win Friday in the Page 1 vs. 2 playoff to advance straight through.
Although the 53-year-old Englot is the more seasoned skip, it’s the 27-year-old Homan who has been down this road before capturing back-to-back Scotties titles in 2013 and 2014. Englot is competing in her eighth national championship as a skip, after guiding her home province of Saskatchewan seven times previously, but this is her first trip to the final in just her first season with her Winnipeg-based team.
“I think how we each need to be going into a final it’s different for everyone and you’ve got to learn that and it kind of comes with experience,” Homan said. “We’re hoping to be as best prepared as we can with that experience under our belt.”
Homan bounced back big time from the Page 1 vs. 2 playoff loss with a four-score spark in the second end to take control of the semifinal early.
Northern Ontario responded in the third end with a deuce to cut the deficit in half. Two points in the fifth for Homan restored the four-point advantage going up 6-2 at the break.
McCarville made it interesting in the second half getting a single in seven and stealing one in eight when Homan came up light and locked onto a guard with her last.
Ontario added a single in nine to take a three-point cushion into the final frame although Homan did need to make her last matter with a hit and roll to eliminate any chance of a McCarville comeback.
“A really strong game by my team. We’re pretty excited to be in the final and put us into the position we wanted to be all week,” Homan said. “Krista McCarville took us right to our last rock. They’re a great team and we’ll be fighting against them for a long time.”
Homan is looking forward to getting another crack against Englot and hoping to be just a tad sharper than in their previous meetings.
“We had a strong game yesterday. It was just a couple shots here and there. We were really happy with our performance when we scored those twos when we had hammer and just didn’t quite force against them,” Homan said. “I think today we were a hair sharper, picked it up for today and recover and hopefully have a strong one tomorrow.”
“They’re a strong team and we’re excited to get another chance to see what happens tomorrow,” she added. “Hopefully it’ll be a good game for the fans and hopefully we make our last shot in 10.”
Northern Ontario was able to recover somewhat from the early four-ender — both teams shot 92 percent throughout the game — but it was ultimately too deep a hole to dig out of.
“You never want to give up a four-ender to a team like that,” McCarville said. “They’re so good at peeling out and just hitting overall. That is tough to climb back after that.”
McCarville takes on Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey in Sunday afternoon’s bronze medal game. McCarville rolled right past Carey stealing seven points over four consecutive ends during an 8-1 rout earlier Saturday in the Page 3 vs. 4 playoff.
Northern Ontario fell to Carey’s crew from Calgary in last year’s final to settle for silver and now McCarville regroups for an opportunity at another chance to finish in the podium.
“Even though this loss is disappointing, we definitely want to come out firing tomorrow,” McCarville said. “We want to be on that podium. It means a lot to us, to our families that have put in so much time for us and we’re going to work really hard to get the third place.”
The winner of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts will represent Canada next month at the world championship in Beijing, China.