The Canadian Press
Emanuel Sequeira
PENTICTON, B.C.–It was another dominating performance for Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The five-time Scotties champion scored six in the sixth end to nail down a 14-1 win against Yukon’s Chelsea Duncan at the South Okanagan Events Centre yesterday afternoon.
The Manitoba rink scored three in the first and second ends and led 8-0 after four.
Yukon scored one in the fifth end.
Jones, who defeated Saskatchewan 12-5 on Saturday night to begin the tournament 2-0, says it’s important to start off with back-to-back solid performances.
“It feels good to go out there and make a lot of your shots, and then it gives you some confidence,” she reasoned.
“You also want to have those games where it goes down to the wire and you have to make those big shots in the later ends.
“[But] it’s nice to have some games that don’t go the full distance,” she added. “It’s a long week.”
Jones, of the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg, said her crew wants to get used to the ice, rocks, and speed early in the women’s national championship.
“We’re focusing on trying to make our shots precise and exact,” she remarked.
“Even when you have a big lead, you still want to do that.”
In yesterday’s late draws, Team Canada’s Michelle Englot (2-1) suffered her first loss of the tournament, falling 10-6 to Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger.
Englot’s Winnipeg rink is replacing defending champion Rachel Homan as the Ottawa skip prepares for the Olympic Games in South Korea.
“It’s a good feeling but we don’t want to get too big of heads going,” Scheidegger said of the 3-0 record that puts her rink atop the Pool ‘B’ standings.
“We still have a lot of games left,” she stressed. “We’re just trying to keep rolling and stay confident.”
Englot said the game came down to a couple of shots, and it was one end (the fourth giving up three points) where they got in a little bit of trouble.
“They are good,” Englot said of Scheidegger’s rink. “They are great shooters.
“You know you need to play your ‘A’ game as a team,” she added. “We didn’t do that tonight.”
Ontario’s Hollie Duncan edged Quebec’s Emilia Gagne 7-5, leaving both skips with 1-2 records.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis earned a 10-3 win over Nunavut’s Amie Shackleton (0-3).
And P.E.I.’s Robyn MacPhee beat B.C.’s Kesa Van Osch 9-5 for her first victory.
Curtis joins Scheidegger atop Pool ‘B’ with three wins. P.E.I. and B.C. both sit at 1-2.
Wild-card entry Kerri Einarson (2-0) remained undefeated in Pool ‘A’ after holding off Nova Scotia’s Mary-Anne Arsenault 7-5.
Einarson, who needed to beat Calgary’s Chelsea Carey on Friday night to gain entry into the main draw, scored three in the eighth end before adding a single in the 10th.
“It’s nice to get two W’s to start with,” Einarson said.
“You take your losses forward, so you definitely don’t want to lose any in this round,” she stressed.
The skip from the East St. Paul Curling Club said it was a strange feeling not being sure if she would be competing at the Scotties.
“It’s so weird,” Einarson conceded. “Playing that game against Chelsea, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is do-or-die. You are in it or you are not.’
“To get that second chance is huge.”
Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson (1-1) scored four in the ninth end to beat Kerry Galusha (1-1) of the Northwest Territories 8-4 while New Brunswick’s Sylvie S. Robichaud (1-1) had a deuce in the 10th to get past Northern Ontario’s Tracy Fleury 8-5.
Fleury and Yukon’s Duncan both sit at 0-2.
The top four teams from each pool advance to the championship round.
