ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — Ottawa’s Rachel Homan is through to the final at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Homan emerged victorious in the Battle of Ontario against northern provincial rival Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay 7-5 in Saturday night’s semifinal at the Meridian Centre.
The two-time Canadian champion Homan looks to win her third, but will have to find a way to solve Michelle Englot. Manitoba topped Ontario 9-5 to wrap up their round-robin and scored a 9-8 win in the Page 1 vs. 2 playoff to head straight through to Sunday’s finale.
Homan opened with hammer and jumped out of the gate with a four-point lead. Northern Ontario fell into trouble in the second and it only got worse as McCarville wrecked her last on a stone at the top of the house with Homan already counting three. Homan took full advantage to add one more to her total rolling off of another rock and into the four-foot circle to score four and take control early.
McCarville responded in the third with a great tap back to raise one onto the button. Homan was only able to peel out the top counter and McCarville drew her last in to cut the deficit in half with a deuce.
Homan pulled off an incredible shot with her first skip stone in fourth end to set the table for a blank. With McCarville sitting shot rock, Homan fired a bullet to double raise a pair of guards and peel the counter out of the rings.
McCarville was unable to hide her last in five. Homan tapped it out for shot and added another point for a deuce with an unassuming second stone sitting at the top edge of the rings.
McCarville blanked six and was forced to hit and stay for just a single in seven. Homan was on point all game shooting 95 percent until her last in the eighth, which came up light and locked onto a guard to give up a steal.
Homan knocked out both of McCarville’s counters in nine, but still sat one at the top edge of the rings for a single.
McCarville had nowhere to hide and Homan ran her out of rocks.
Northern Ontario takes on Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey in Sunday afternoon’s bronze medal game.
McCarville crushes Carey in Page 3 vs. 4 playoff
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — There will be a new champion this year at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville rolled right past Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey with an 8-1 rout in Saturday’s Page 3 vs. 4 playoff to advance to the semifinal.
McCarville will be on the ice for the evening’s Battle of Ontario against Rachel Homan for a spot in the championship game.
“I’m pretty pumped actually,” Northern Ontario third Kendra Lilly said. “I think it’ll be great for the fans. We want to play them again. We had a really good game against them in the round-robin so we just want to go out and play like we did.”
Carey, who went 9-2 through round-robin play, couldn’t capitalize with hammer advantage blanking the first couple ends and then struggled with draw weight to fall behind fast.
McCarville blocked her shot rock in the third end to force Carey to draw to the button. Carey’s throw was wide and heavy to miss the mark and give up a steal.
Northern Ontario took a two-point advantage when Carey came up light on the draw with her last in four to concede another one. Carey’s draw weight continued to elude her as her final stone in five rolled heavy past McCarville’s pair to fall down in a 4-0 hole at the break.
Team McCarville didn’t ease off of the gas pedal and continued to shoot the lights out, finishing at a 93 percent clip. Northern Ontario sat three counters in the sixth and Carey was once again unable to get in there with her final rock to make it 7-0.
“Earlier on in the week we had a lead against Manitoba and we started to try and just peel out and be super defensive and they actually ended up winning that game, so we wanted to try to keep the pressure on her and just make her draw like we did,” Lilly said. “I guess we were just a little fortunate that she didn’t have it and got a couple steals. We just liked keeping the pressure on her and hoping to bring that into the next game too.”
Carey raised arms in triumph as she finally got her draw down for a single in the eighth. McCarville finally held the hammer in the ninth and tacked on another point to bring out the handshakes.
“It just felt good out there,” Lilly said. “The ice was predictable. We were throwing a lot of hits and even when we were putting the pressure on them when it was a little closer we all seemed to have our draw weight and putting the rocks where we needed to. Everything was working out well.”
McCarville posted an 8-3 record in the preliminary round including an 8-4 win over Carey on Thursday. Carey’s Calgary crew topped McCarville, of Thunder Bay, Ont., in last year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts gold medal game.
Carey has one more game to go with the Maple Leaf on her back playing for bronze Sunday afternoon. Manitoba’s Michelle Englot edged Homan 9-8 during Friday’s Page 1 vs. 2 playoff to secure a spot in Sunday’s final.
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