Team Canada’s Michelle Englot knocked Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis from the ranks of the unbeaten Tuesday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Englot registered deuces in each of the first two ends en route to an 8-5 victory over Curtis, who came into the match having won four straight. But with Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger also winning, there’s now a three-way tie atop Pool B with each rink at 4-1.
Scheidegger scored four in the fifth to capture a 11-4 win over Nunavut’s Amie Schackleton (0-5) at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Englot started her match against Curtis strong, storming out a 4-0 lead after just two ends.
“It was just a matter of not getting into too much trouble,” said Englot, a Regina native. “It was a fairly good building game for us.
“We’re getting more and more comfortable with the ice every game. We need to just keep building momentum.”
Englot said getting off to a quick start was key for her team. And Team Canada went ahead 4-0 with a steal of two in the second end when Curtis’s rock slid into the 12-foot ring.
“That kind of put us behind the eight-ball a little bit,” said Curtis. “That kind of really just set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Canada made it 6-2 in the fifth end with another steal as Curtis felt her squad was flat.
“We can all play better and we’re all competitive enough to go back and regroup,” she said.
Newfoundland and Labrador struggled with draw weight throughout the contest. Curtis said her team didn’t expect to go through the preliminary round undefeated but a key now is learning from the loss, the moving on.
“You are going to have to be resilient,” she said. “We’ve done it before.”
Englot said continued improvement remains her team’s goal, adding it has areas in its game that need cleaning up. Englot felt Team Canada didn’t control the front of the rings in the first few ends as well as it would’ve liked.
Still, she’s more than happy to be tied for first in Pool B.
“We needed to beat them,” said Englot, who was second to Ontario’s Rachel Homan in last year’s tournament and finished third in 1988 and ‘89.
In early other action, B.C.’s Kesa Van Osch (3-2) scored three in the 10th end for a 6-5 win over Ontario’s Hollie Duncan (2-3) while Quebec’s Emilia Gagne (2-3) scored twice in the 10th for an 8-6 victory over Prince Edward Island’s Robyn MacPhee (1-4).
“We played a good game,” said Quebec’s Marie-Pier Harvey through a translator. “We made great shots.
“The other team too. The skip MacPhee made some terrific shots. Forced us to make good shots.”
The top four teams from each pool advance to the championship round.