Blowout tiebreaker win for McCarville

On Wednesday, Krista McCarville met her match in Manitoba’s Jill Thurston, who matched the Thunder Bay skip’s aggressive style shot for shot en route to a 10-5 shellacking. 

McCarville wasn’t making the same mistake twice.

On Friday the two teams met in tiebreaker play at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie and this one was all McCarville, as she earned her first playoff berth in four tries at the national women’s curling championship with a 10-3 walk-off victory.

McCarville, lead Kari MacLean, second Ashley Miharija and third Tara George will take on British Columbia’s  Kelly Scott foursome on Saturday in a win-or-go-home semfinal.

The Fort William Curling Club foursome took a less aggressive approach in this one, at least in the opening end, which they chose to blank with the hammer. But in the second McCarville was back to her old daring self, preferring to take a chance on a risky runback to score three rather than taking the safe shot and scoring a single.

It set the tone for the match, as Thurston was never able to get back to even ground.

McCarville made two of her only mistakes of the afternoon in the third end, coming up short on both her draws to leave an easy shot for two points for Thurston, who closed the gap to 3-2.

It looked like it was game on from there, but missed shots by Thurston in the fourth round set up an easy open draw for two for McCarville and the three-point edge was restored.

Thurston came up short on a draw for two in the fifth end, and the teams went to the break with Ontario up 5-3.

It was all Team McCarville after that.

She scored three in the sixth and stole two in the eighth when Thurston’s final stone crashed into her own stone, knocking it and her shooter out of shot position.

The semifinal is slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday. McCarville has beaten Scott three straight times, including once at the Olympic pre-qualifier, once at the Olympic qualifier and once earlier this week, by a 7-6 count.