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Northern Pride: Nunavut defeats Northern Ontario in Scotties Draw 9 for first win

B.C., Canada, P.E.I. all stay in hunt with key wins as championship pool nears
Anyone keeping an eye on Nunavut through the first few days of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts quickly got the feeling that with a break or two, Lori Eddy’s foursome could pick up a win with how well they were playing.

It didn’t happen right away, and Nunavut came into action on Tuesday sitting at 0-4 and out of contention.

But facing Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville in the morning draw, Eddy, third Sadie Pinksen, second Alison Griffin and Kaitlin MacDonald show the stick-to-it-iveness that attracted attention in the first place, scoring points over the final three ends to take a 6-5 victory.

“I think I’m in shock, I can’t believe that just happened,” Eddy said shortly after posing for a handful of photos on the ice with her team. “We have mad respect for Krista McCarville’s team, they were playing so well and when I missed that draw to give up the steal I thought ‘we’re sunk in the water’. But we rallied and regrouped and kept plugging away.”

And how.

Things were looking less than positive for Eddy through five ends, as McCarville, third Kendra Lilly, second Ashley Sippala and lead Jennifer Gates had built a 5-1 lead and were coming off a steal of two in the fifth.

But things can change suddenly at the Scotties, and they did right after the break.

Eddy promptly picked up two in the sixth and after McCarville blanked the seventh, Nunavut caught the kind of break they needed when the Thunder Bay skip had her final rock pick to give her a steal.

Eddy added another steal in nine to tie the game and then made what might turn out to be her shot of the tournament in 10, drawing to the four behind tight cover and leaving McCarville the sharpest of draws for the win. She would come in heavy, Nunavut got the steal, and the win was theirs.

“As soon as she nosed the shot in the top 12, I was kind of eying it and sort of knew,” Eddy said of her final shot. “I played the same shot in eight, so I had a good feeling about it and knew the weight and it turned out pretty good.”

While they might only have a couple of games left in their Scotties appearance, Eddy expressed immense pride in her crew for their performance through the week thus far.

“Looking at the field and looking at the pool, our goal was just to be competitive in these games and make the other team deserve the win,” Eddy said. “This is a huge bonus to come out with the win and we’re so proud of ourselves… these girls are doing an awesome job, they’re the future of Nunavut curling and I can’t wait to see where they go.

The contest could have a championship pool impact, too – McCarville dropped to 3-2 in Pool A and now sits in a three way tie for third with Canada and Alberta with two preliminary round contests left.

Northern Ontario will play Alberta in the morning draw Wednesday before facing Saskatchewan (3-1) in the evening round. Nunavut takes on Team Canada in the morning, Quebec in the evening.


Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt can tell you all about the emotional swings of the Scotties after how things turned out though her last two games.

Only 12 hours after the tiniest of sweeping errors cost her a potential win against Wild Card’s Jennifer Jones in the night draw on Monday, Birt and her rink of third Marie Christianson, second Meaghan Hughes and lead Michelle McQuaid rebounded with an impressive 9-3 win over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Erica Curtis.

“We were pretty pleased that we were coming right back out on the ice this morning and it was a great game,” Birt said. “We just stuck to our gameplan and rebounded after last night and it worked out for us.”

Birt – a 10-time Scotties competitor and former Canadian junior champion as Suzanne Gaudet – got off to a solid start with points in three of the first four ends and a 4-1 lead. Curtis, third Erin Porter, second Julie Devereaux and lead Beth Hamilton got two back the next two ends, but a deuce in the seventh and steal of three in the eighth brought things to an early end.

The win was critical in the Pool B standings, too, as Birt now sits tied for the fourth and final championship spot at 3-2.

“We’re really close, we’ll just keep trying to build momentum,” Birt said. “Even though we lost last night, it was still a good game and we still had control, so we’re feeling good about the ice and our shot-making, and we’ll just build going forward.”

Curtis dropped to 1-4 with the loss.

P.E.I. faces Yukon (0-5) in the morning Tuesday and Northwest Territories (2-2) in afternoon. Newfoundland and Labrador take on B.C. in the morning before closing out their Scotties against Wild Card in the afternoon.


A tough loss to Ontario in their lone game on Monday could have been discouraging for the youngest rink in the tournament, but B.C.’s Corryn Brown managed to rebound in style against Yukon’s Hailey Birnie on Tuesday morning.

Brown, third Erin Pincott, second Dezaray Hawes and lead Ashley Klymchuk battled through a handful of back-and-forth ends in the early going – things were tied 2-2- through four and Brown led 4-3 through six – but a three-spot in the seventh suddenly had the young skip in control of the contest

Birnie, third Chelsea Duncan, second Gabrielle Plonka and lead Kimberly Tuor got two back in eighth and went all out in the ninth trying to get back into the contest, eventually giving up five and conceding.

“It’s nice to get back in the win column, we kind of had two tough games before that but we’re definitely happy to come back with a win and have a patient game,” Brown said. “I think we definitely had to be patient and take our opportunities as we could, we just needed to stick with out game.”

Brown hopes her team’s showing against some of her pool’s toughest teams will bode well through her final two preliminary round robin games.

“I think we gained a lot of confidence and know that we belong here and can compete with the top teams here,” she said. “We knew we needed to come back and bounce back with the win and we’re happy we did.”

Brown improved to 3-2 to sit tied with P.E.I. for the fourth and final championship spot, Birnie dropped to 0-5.

B.C. faces Nova Scotia (3-1) in their round robin finale Wednesday afternoon, Yukon plays their final Scotties contest against Ontario in the afternoon.


Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey needed a win on Tuesday morning to stay in touch with the Pool A leaders and did just that, taking a 7-5 victory over Alberta’s Laura Walker.

Carey, third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown built a 5-2 lead through five ends, and after a Walker deuce in the sixth made it a one-point game, the two teams exchanged single points the next three ends before Carey ran Walker out of rocks in the 10th.

Having that kind of a contest – yet again – was of little surprise to Wilkes.

“Whenever you’re here, everyone comes here to play and every single game will be battle,” Wilkes said. “It’s exhausting for sure, but it’s awesome to be out here with all these amazing athletes, trying to get a win every day.”
That includes Walker, third Kate Cameron, second Taylor McDonald and lead Nadine Scotland, one of the teams they see often on the World Curling Tour.

“There are a lot the same teams we’d play on tour, but the environment is a lot different,” Wilkes said. “There’s a lot on the line here, with the chance to go on to represent Canada at worlds, but it’s the same people only with more at stake…We knew we were going to have a tough start, we knew we were playing a lot of the top teams in our pool right off the bat, we play them all the time and know they’re strong teams, so that was a big win for sure.”

Canada takes on New Brunswick (1-3) in their final prelim game on Tuesday evening, Alberta takes on Manitoba (4-0).

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