OSHAWA, Ont. — Chelsea Carey and Kristy McDonald climbed into the win column during Draw 6 at the National Thursday morning.
Both Carey and McDonald entered Day 3 of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament with 0-2 records and needed victories to stay in the mix for playoff contention.
Carey and her Calgary-based rink defeated Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 5-3 in a Battle of Alberta match-up while McDonald, of Winnipeg, held off American Jamie Sinclair 4-2.
Team Carey lost to Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson in their first game Wednesday after they ran out of time during their final throw and Einarson capitalized to score three and grab a 6-5 comeback win. Carey’s second game of the day against Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan went into an extra end and the recently crowned Masters champions prevailed 7-5.
“We needed that,” Carey said. “We had a really tough situation in our first game yesterday, didn’t really deserve a loss there but took one and that was difficult to swallow. We played pretty well last night into an extra end and another loss there so you start to go, ‘ugh, okay come on.'”
Carey opened with hammer and scored two in the second. Team Carey maintained the two-point advantage as the rinks continued to alternate singles through the remainder of the game capped with Carey making a tap back with her last rock in the final end to land for shot and secure the victory.
“We needed to rebound with a win here today to keep our chances alive,” Carey said. “Luckily we came out and played pretty well and were able to pull it off.”
Rocque, a two-time world junior champion, has a 1-1 record in the round robin.
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Meanwhile, McDonald trailed by one at the fourth-end break and pulled ahead with a deuce in the five and stole one in six to go up 3-1. Sinclair (0-2) settled for a single in seven but McDonald matched in eight.
Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones rolled out to a 9-1 rout in just four ends over EunJung Kim of South Korea. Jones scored a deuce in the first and swiped a pair in the second. Kim was limited to a single in three and shook hands after Jones scored five in the fourth. Jones, the reigning Olympic and Scotties champion, now tops Pool B of the women’s division with a 2-0 record.
Team Kim have a 1-1 record.
Sherry Middaugh, of Coldwater, fended off reigning Ontario Scotties champion Julie Hastings, of Thornhill, 5-3 in a rematch of last season’s provincial final. Middaugh is at 1-1 while Hastings fell to 0-2.
On the men’s side, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher scored a deuce in the seventh and stole two in eight to beat reigning Brier champion Pat Simmons of Calgary 6-3. Both teams are even at 1-1 records.
The National is the third stop — and second major — on the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour and runs through to Sunday evening at the General Motors Centre. Previously a men’s invitational, the event expanded this year to include a women’s division for the first time.
TV coverage of the National begins at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT on Sportsnet.
