MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — When it was pointed out that her Manitoba-based team was a perfect four-and-oh at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts through Monday afternoon, third Beth Peterson smiled and said: “I don’t hate it.”
Peterson and skipper Kelsey Calvert, second Katherine Remillard and lead Melissa Gordon-Kurz had just handily beaten Team Northern Ontario to make it four straight, which is actually eight wins in a row if you count back to the run that led to their first-ever provincial championship earlier this month, which earned them the berth here, to nationals.
“I think there was a really good benefit to us playing provincials a couple weeks ago, and we went on a roll there in the end,” Peterson said, “and I think we’re still kind of riding that high, to be honest, just continuing what we did in those last four games of provincials and putting it out here on this ice.”
A day after they beat Nova Scotia’s Christina Black in extra-ends — Black is the No. 3 seed here — Peterson took out two-time Scotties silver medallist Krista Scharf and her Northern Ontario team at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
It was tied 2-2 at the halfway mark, and in the sixth, Peterson made a double takeout with her last to sit three, teeing it up for Calvert to float in an open draw for the 5-2 lead. That blew the game open ahead of an eventual 9-2 drubbing that saw teams shake hands after eight ends.
“I think we’re just kind of firing on all cylinders and we’re playing really well and being really precise with shots and taking advantage of the odd miss that we get from teams out there,” Calvert said of her team, which is seeded seventh. “I think we’ve done a really good job controlling our emotions too and just knowing that we’re really excited and thankful to be there, at the same time we’re here to win.”
This team that now sits atop Pool B made a big change back in November. While it’s Peterson’s name they use to identify themselves (three teams here hail from Manitoba, so other identifiers are key), it’s Calvert who’s skipping. She and Peterson swapped positions not long after Olympic pre-trials, after asking: “How could we make ourselves that five or 10 per cent better?” as Calvert put it.
“When we changed that first event in November, we finished the event and we said, ‘Okay, this is the lineup. We need to buy into these positions and give it our all,’” added Calvert, who noted the change was Peterson’s idea. “And I think the two of us and our front end have done a really good job of that.”
It sure is showing lately. After losing in the final each of the last two years in Manitoba provincials, they broke through and beat two-time Olympic gold medallist Kaitlyn Lawes in the final earlier this month.
And it’s Lawes who sits atop Pool A here, with a perfect 5-0 record after upsetting the favourites, Kerri Einarson's Team Canada, handing them their first loss of round-robin play with a 9-4 victory on Monday night in a game that was over after eight ends.
Lawes was in command of the game early. She struck with a beautiful angle raise double to score three in the second end, then buried her last in the third with a hit-and-roll that saw Einarson rub a guard and give up a steal of two. Then Lawes floated in a deuce to take a 7-2 lead into the break.
"It's huge," Lawes said of the win over Einarson, who's a four-time Scotties champion. "Going into the rest of the week, it's huge to get that win against them, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going."
And so it’s the finalists of the recent Manitoba provincials who are the lone perfect teams at the Scotties through early play.
After Team Peterson won their latest, Calvert smiled, which is about as much emotion as you’ll see from the 31-year-old skipper, who describes herself as “even keel.” Calvert wonders if that’s part of why she and Peterson swapping positions is working so well, because the team’s third is quite the opposite.
“I have a pretty quiet personality and Beth is more outgoing and more talkative, so I think it's been kind of a seamless transition a little bit in those senses,” Calvert said. “She's really good at being that kind of bridge and communicator for the front end to me, and maybe I didn't do as good of a job of that back when I was playing third. But yeah, I think it's been really fun out there.”
The swap hasn’t translated to the team’s name changing, but nobody’s worried about that. “We switched halfway through (the season) and then by that time we were like, ‘Ah, let’s just leave it, I guess,’” Calvert said. “Then we kept winning and now we’re here and we just kind of kept it that way.”
The big wins started earlier this month at provincials. And winning that title wasn’t just a breakthrough for this Team Peterson.
“Maybe it kept a few of us really, like, curling, to be honest. It's hard to have a lot of losses like that and big losses, and I think losing that game could have changed what our decisions are for next year, just to be very frank,” Calvert said.
“So I think it really gave us that confidence that we belong here and we wanted to come here and show that we do belong here, and we can compete with these teams.”
