In the end, it just wasn’t to be.
Silvernagle and her rink of third Stefanie Lawton, second Jessie Hunkin and lead Kara Thevenot – with alternate Stephanie Schmidt playing the final three ends for Hunkin – would drop a 9-4 decision to Ontario’s Rachel Homan, falling to 5-5.
When Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville won later in the draw to improve to 7-3, Silvernagle’s winning quest was officially over.
“We’re happy we made it to the championship round, even though though we don’t have a chance of making playoffs now,” Silvernagle said “We’re still excited to play tonight and we’ll just fully enjoy the crowd and the experience and what we’ve learned this weekend.”
Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle were their usual steamroller selves, holding Silvernagle to one in the first end, following with a deuce in the second and steal of three in the third. Two more steals the following ends, it was 7-1 and all but over.
“We definitely struggled with the ice and Rachel’s team played really well, they didn’t give us any opportunities,” Silvernagle said. “It was a bit of a battle.”
With nothing to play for other than pride in their final game against B.C., Silvernagle and crew plan to enjoy the night and what’s expected to be a large crowd at Mosaic Place.
“I think the goal is to just go have fun, be completely present, enjoy the experience of playing our last game at home, have a lot of fun and make some great shots,” Silvernagle said, adding with a laugh “Maybe we’ll even get into the crowd a little bit more.”
Ontario faces Manitoba in their final championship pool contest, a game that will act as seeding for the Page playoffs beginning Saturday.
The marquee match-up of the draw was an all-Manitoba contest featuring Kerri Einarson and Wild Card Jennifer Jones from Winnipeg, two of the three teams tied at 7-1 heading into the day.
And in yet another crazy turn for the week, it was almost over before it began.
Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Dawn McEwen scored four in both the first and third ends to take a quick 8-2 lead, and while Einarson would make things interesting with some aggressive play to get back into things, Jones would go on to a 12-7 victory.
“We got our rocks in good spots and put some pressure on them, if she gets some rocks by it’s a different story, but she gave us an out and we took advantage of it,” Jones said in describing the four-enders. “The second four was a tough shot and we made a good one.”
Einarson and her rink of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Brianne Meilleur – with alternate Jennifer Clark-Rouire getting in the final two ends for Sweeting – fell to 8-2 with the loss and will need a win over Homan to avoid the 3-4 Page game Saturday afternoon.
Jones, meanwhile, will take on Northern Ontario, with a win sending her straight to the Page 1-2 game. The plan for that contest? Change nothing.
“Nothing really different, you still feel like it’s sudden death every time you play even though I know it’s not,” Jones said. “You feel like you want to go put your best game on the ice, so it’s nothing different, we just want to make sure we stay confident for tomorrow, make some shots and end of the day feel good about the game.”
Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville hasn’t had the flashiest of wins or most commanding presence in this year’s Scotties, but that’s no matter.
After a 6-5 win over Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt on Friday afternoon, she’s officially off to the Page playoff 3-4 game.
McCarville, third Kendra Lilly, second Ashley Sippala and lead Jennifer Gates didn’t have an easy time of it, though, going down to the final end and nearly having it slip away when Birt pulled off a couple of circus shots. The first was an angle raise double to lay three on her first rock – a shot that TSN caught even Birt reacting with amazement at the result – and then, after McCarville drew into the house to limit a potential big score, another multi-hit raise that saw things settle with only two for P.E.I. and the McCarville win.
“We always seem to make them exciting at the end, maybe put a few more wrinkles on my face and a few more grey hairs, what else can I ask for,” McCarville said with a laugh.
McCarville knew the situation when Saskatchewan lost earlier in the draw, something that made the win all the more important heading into the final ends of her contest.
“We had to win that, no matter what happened out there we knew we were in control of our fate and that feels good,” McCarville said.
Birt and her rink of third Marie Christianson, second Meaghan Hughes and lead Michelle McQuaid dropped to 5-5 and close out their Scotties against Jones tonight.
Chelsea Carey and her Team Canada foursome just didn’t have the kind of week they were hoping in their quest to defend their 2019 Scotties title and were among the four teams eliminated from contention on Friday afternoon.
Carey, third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and Rachel Brown dropped a 9-2 decision to B.C.’s Corryn Brown, with their only points coming in the third end as B.C. would hold Carey scoreless the rest of the game before stealing four in the eighth to close things out.
“It’s disappointing, we just didn’t quite have it,” Carey said of the week that was. “We weren’t far off of good things, we just couldn’t quite get it together, we showed flashes of it in games but we couldn’t produce as consistently as we needed to.”
Their showing doesn’t change the fact the team just spend the past year as Team Canada, something Carey and her Edmonton rink thoroughly enjoyed.
“Being Team Canada is a huge honour and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said. “It’s unfortunate things didn’t go better this week but we wore the maple leaf with all the pride we could… we tried to conduct ourselves the way Team Canada should and we did that in the face of some adversity this week.”
Brown, third Erin Pincott, second Dezaray Hawes and Ashley Klymchuk improved to 5-5 and cap their tournament appearance against Saskatchewan tonight.
