CALGARY – Mistakes, they made a few.
It cost Team Northern Ontario a shot at a third straight podium finish at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Skip Krista McCarville, who struggled much of the week, missed an opportunity for a pair in the second end and settled for one.
In the fourth she had a chance for a four with a possible double take-out on her final stone, but couldn’t move the second shot far enough and once again was held to one.
Then, after escaping a hairy situation to steal one in the sixth, McCarville, third Andrea Kelly, second Ashley Sippala and lead Sarah Potts found themselves in trouble again in the seventh.
This time her opponent, former world champion Kaitlyn Lawes, was able to fend McCarville off, the Northern Ontario skip failing to make an angle raise to the button, leaving a draw for three to the button, with plenty of backing.
Lawes made the shot, jumped in front 5-3 and went on to eliminate McCarville and her five-player rotation with an 6-5 triumph in the round-robin finale in Calgary.
With the win, Lawes claimed the third and final Pool A playoff spot.
Lawes who won a five-team tie for third based on her last stone draw score, joins four-time defending champion Kerri Einarson Alberta’s Selena Sturmay in the A side playoff.
Rachel Homan and Jennifer Jones have wrapped up spots in Pool B. B.C’s Clancy Grandy and Manitoba’s Kate Cameron (4-3) are in the hunt for the last remaining spot.
Lawes, McCarville, Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges, and B.C.’s Corryn Brown all finished the week at 4-4.
Curling Canada this year eliminated tiebreaker games. Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker. All four teams were 2-2 in games involving each other.
Lawes finished with 231.6 points, while McCarville had 370.3. Brown was fourth at 466.8 and St-George had 578.3.
