A spot in the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts playoffs just wasn’t in the cards for Penny Barker.
Barker and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre foursome of third Christie Gamble, second Jenna Enge and lead Danielle Sicinski capped their appearance at the national women’s curling championship with a 10-4 loss to Wild Card #3’s Emma Miskew on Thursday in Thunder Bay.
As a result, Saskatchewan will finish with a 4-4 record in the tournament, a win away from forcing a tiebreaker and a crack at the playoff round.
Barker came into the contest needing a win and some help to continue her Scotties run, but got off to a tough start against Miskew, giving up a pair in the second end and steal of two in the third to trail 4-0.
Things didn’t get much better after Barker picked up one in the fourth, as Saskatchewan would surrender another pair an end later and endured a dagger strike when Miskew stole three in the sixth.
The two teams exchanged single points the next two ends before calling it a day.
Wild Card #3 also finished with a 4-4 record.
Making things that much tougher is Barker did get the help she needed in the standings -- Wild Card #1 welcomed back skip Tracy Fleury from COVID protocols and she looked like she hadn’t missed a day in an 8-6 win over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville.
McCarville finished the round robin at 5-3, meaning a Barker win would have forced a tiebreaker on Friday morning.
Fleury (7-1) earned the top spot out of Pool A, while New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford finished second at 6-2 and McCarville landed the third and final playoff spot.
Things are still to be decided in Pool B, as Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson (7-0), Nova Scotia’s Christina Black (5-2) and Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias (5-2) hold down the top three spots, with Northwest Territories’ Kerry Galusha (4-3) also having an outside shot at the playoffs heading into the evening draw.
The first two rounds of the playoffs take place Friday, followed by the Page Playoffs first round games Saturday, semifinal at 11 a.m. Sunday and championship final at 6 p.m. All draws are broadcast on TSN, and you can follow the scores live at www.curling.ca/2022scotties.
