THUNDER BAY – The laughter and smiles have returned.
It may be Team Northern Ontario’s key to advancing to the next round at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Skip Krista McCarville, whose team struggled against Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador, said she and her teammates weren’t really having a lot of fun at that point, and it showed in their results. They pulled out a 7-6 win over Nunavut on Monday night, then dropped an 8-6 decision to Sarah Hill’s East Coast team on Tuesday night, endangering their playoff chances at the Thunder Bay event.
It took a little self-reflection as a team to get back on track on Wednesday, edging Andrea Crawford’s previously unbeaten New Brunswick team 8-7 in an extra end at Fort William Gardens.
“After the last couple of games, where I’ve really had a struggle with draw weight, to come out and to actually feel batter and feel back to the Krista that I know feels really good,” McCarville said.
“We have to win now and we needed that. It doesn’t matter it if goes to an extra end, we just needed the double and just needed to feel back as a team.”
McCarville said she and her teammates – lead Sarah Potts, second Ashley Sippala and third Kendra Lilly – were taking things too seriously the past couple of days.
They needed to approach things with a little bit of a lighter heart.
“We said this is a game that we love. This is not our life. We have life outside of curling and we were almost too serious and too desperate to win. We talked about that and we said we need to get back to having fun and this is a game that we love to play and enjoy,” McCarville said.
“Honestly, the last couple of games, we weren’t enjoying it. We said there was something wrong when you go out and you’re not enjoying your game. That one we had more laughs, we had more smiles and just felt a little more loose, even though it was a tight game.”
The victory, secured when Crawford (5-1) wasn’t able to move into shot position by rattling a trio red stones circling the button on her final shot of the extra end, leaves Northern Ontario at 4-2, tied with Saskatchewan’s Penny Barker for the third and final Pool A playoff spot, the two teams scheduled to battle it out on Wednesday evening.
“It’s a tough one and they’re in the same boat as us,” McCarville said. “We have the same record, so I think both teams are going to be really fired up and really wanting to win that game.”
Northern Ontario and New Brunswick traded points in the first two ends, forcing each other to singles. New Brunswick jumped in front for the first and only time in the match in the third, but McCarville bounced back in the fourth with a pair, making a draw with backing to take a 3-2 advantage.
Crawford tapped her own stone in the fifth to surrender a steal of one, but tied things up an end later, making a double takeout and hanging around for the deuce.
McCarville made a hit-and-stick for two in the seventh and restored her two-rock lead in the ninth, but Crawford tied it up, her final rock hanging on by mere inches to count, barely in front of a Northern Ontario stone.
In other Draw 13 action, Wild Card No. 1 Tracy Fleury downed Newfoundland and Labrador 8-3, Prince Edward Island got their second win, eliminating two-time champ Chelea Carey 8-4, and Barker made easy work of Nunavut’s Brigitte MacPhail (0-6) by an 11-4 score.
