THUNDER BAY – Northern Ontario will take on Nova Scotia for a chance to move on to the Page Playoff at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Northern Ontario, skipped by Krista McCarville, qualified earlier on Thursday and Nova Scotia, skipped by Christina Black, earned their way in despite dropping a 10-8 decision to Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges in their round-robin finale.
Three teams finished tied for second place at 5-3 in the Pool B standings, but Nova Scotia, a team that includes Thunder Bay’s Karlee Everist, was awarded second place because they beat the other two teams, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, during round-robin play.
The second- and third-place teams in each pool cross over in a one-and-done playoff, the winner moving on to play one of the top seeds.
In the case of Nova Scotia and Northern Ontario, the winner will take on Tracy Fleury’s wild-card team, who finished the round robin at 7-1, edging McCarville 8-6 on Thursday to take top spot in Pool A.
Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias, who scored five in the first end on Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson, only to give up four in the fifth and ultimately lose 10-7, will take on Kerry Galusha’s Northwest Territories foursome.
Galusha, seeking to become the first women’s team from the Territories to make the Scotties playoffs, did her part, in her 19th appearance at the national women’s curling championship, knocking off Alberta’s Laura Walker 7-4 in Draw 17 to pull even with Zacharias and Black.
“We’re pretty excited that we’re still alive. We knew we had to win that and we knew we needed a little bit of help. We just hung in there. It was a great game and hopefully we built some momentum going into our tiebreaker game tomorrow.”
The win came on the heels of a disappointing 11-6 loss to a then one-win British Columbia team skipped by former Nova Scotian Mary-Anne Arsenault, looking to play spoiler with her hopes of a sixth Scotties title already dashed.
Galusha said it was tough not to take a peek at the other teams’ results, knowing Manitoba or Nova Scotia had to lose to have a chance to stay alive.
“It was a really exciting draw. Every game was so close. We were peeking over a little bit, but still knowing we had to win if anything was going to mean anything,” she said.
The tiebreaker goes at 9 a.m., the winner moving on to play New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford on Friday afternoon – the prize in that match a date with two-time defending champion Einarson, who finished 8-0 this week, the lone unbeaten team still standing.
McCarville and Black will tangle at 1 p.m., with up to 400 fans in the Gardens stands for the first time during the tournament.
In the rings: Everist was named the winner of the Marj Mitchell Award as the most sportsmanlike player this week.
