All the preparation, all the pratice and all the waiting is about to come to an end for the Penny Barker foursome at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Barker and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre rink of third Christie Gamble, second Jenna Enge and lead Danielle Sicinski landed in Thunder Bay for the Canadian national women’s curling championship earlier this week and are set to play their first game at the tournament tonight.
They won’t get a soft touch to kick things off, either -- Barker will be facing the tournament’s top seed in Wild Card 1 representative Tracy Fleury, with the contest set to begin at 6 p.m. The game is also the featured match-up on the evening TSN broadcast, and can be found on TSN 1/3/5 as well as TSN Direct and the TSN app.
Interestingly enough, both teams took a hit before even arriving in Thunder Bay.
Fleury herself tested positive for COVID-19 and had to delay her arrival, the same situation for Saskatchewan coach Mark Lang, who is also expected to join the team as soon as COVID protocols are cleared.
Two draws are already in the books, with Friday’s opening round seeing P.E.I. (Suzanne Birt) defeat Nunavut (Brigitte McPhail) 12-3, Northern Ontario (Krista McCarville) down Wild Card #2 (Chelsea Carey) 7-3, Wild Card #3 (Emma Miskew) defeat Newfoundland (Sarah Hill) 10-5 and New Brunswick (Andrea Crawford) take a 6-5 win over Fleury.
Draw two on Saturday afternoon saw Team Canada (Kerri Einarson) take a 12-5 win over Ontario (Holly Duncan), while Nova Scotia (Christina Black) defeated Northwest Territories (Kerry Galusha) 7-5, Manitoba (Mackenzie Zacharias) edged B.C. (Mary-Anne Arsenault) 6-5 and Quebec (Laurie St-Georges) stole a 9-8 win over Alberta (Laura Walker).
After her battle with Team Fleury, Barker is back on the ice on Sunday against Newfoundland at 1 p.m. Moose Jaw time.
The rest of Saskatchewan’s round robin sees Barker take on Carey at 8 a.m. and Crawford at 6 p.m. on Monday, Birt at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, MacPhail at 8 a.m. and McCarville at 6 p.m. on Wednesday before closing out preliminaries against Miskew at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
The top three teams from each nine-team pool advance to the playoffs beginning Friday at 12 p.m., with the Page Playoffs beginning Feb. 5, followed by the semifinal and final on Feb. 6.
TSN also released odds for each of the 18 teams taking part in the tournament, with Barker slotted in at +3500 -- meaning a $100 bet to win the Scotties wins $3,500 -- to sit ninth-best in the field. Team Canada leads the way at +168, while Yukon and Nunavut are both +100,000 at the bottom of the scale.
Prognosticators give Barker a +158 to make the playoffs, with Einarson at -2000 -- meaning a $2,000 bet wins $100 -- and Yukon and Nunavut +50,000.
For the latest scores and updates from the 2022 Scotties Tournaent of Hearts, be sure to visit www.curling.ca/2022scotties/.
