Skylar Ackerman is back on track at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and thanks to a win on Wednesday morning, the Moose Jaw skip is right in the hunt for a playoff spot.
Ackmeran and her Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Ashley Thevenot, second Taylor Stremick and lead Kaylin Skinner improved to 4-3 in Pool A thanks to a 7-6 win over Newfoundland’s Stacie Curtis in their first of two games Wednesday.
The win snapped a run of tough outings for Team Saskatchewan, as after getting off to a 3-0 start heading into play Monday, Ackerman had lost three straight and needed a pair of wins in her final two games to have a shot at the playoffs.
So far, so good.
Things were close in the early going against Newfoundland, as thanks to a Ackerman three-spot in the third end, the teams were tied 3-3 through four ends, The teams exchanged points the next two frames before Ackerman finally took control of things, stealing three in the seventh for a 7-4 lead. Curtis got two back in the eighth to make things interesting down the stretch, but single points in the final two ends would give Saskatchewan the victory.
Ackerman curled 74 percent in the win, while Skinner hit 81 percent, Stremick 74 percent and Thevenot 79 percent.
Ackerman had raised a few eyebrows with her start to the tournament, as an 11-8 win over Prince Edward Island’s Jane DiCarlo (0-7), 8-6 win over Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes (3-3) and 6-5 win over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville (3-3) saw the youngest rink in the field with a perfect record through the first three draws.
Things got far tougher from there, though, as Ackerman fell 7-3 to Quebec’s Laurie St. Georges (3-3) and 8-4 to Alberta’s Selena Sturmay (6-0) in her two draws Monday before running into three-time defending champion Kerri Einarson (5-1) in her lone game Tuesday and falling 11-6.
The win this morning moved Ackerman a win clear of the five-team logjam at 3-3 heading into the 13th draw, and puts her in the driver’s seat when it comes to potentially landing a playoff spot. A win over British Columbia’s Corryn Brown on Wednesday night guarantees at least a tiebreaker situation, where teams with identical records will be ranked by who won their round-robin game.
The top three teams from each pool advance to the playoffs, with the top two teams from each pool playing off to advance directly to the Page Playoff 1-2 game Friday afternoon. The losers of the first playoff match will play the third-place teams on Friday evening, with the winners there advancing to the Page 3-4 game.
The Page Playoff continues Saturday, with the semifinal Sunday afternoon and the gold medal game Sunday evening.
You can follow along with all the scores from the week at www.curling.ca and be sure to catch the action on TSN.
