Horgan lands berth in Northern Ontario's Scotties final

Tracy Horgan has always been a clutch curler.

She needed everything in her bag of tricks on Friday night, stealing single points in the ninth and 10th ends to grab the first berth in Saturday’s championship finale at the inaugural Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The Sudbury skip, who trailed Thunder Bay’s Kendra Lilly 2-0 and 3-1 as late as the seventh end, rallied for the 4-3 victory and stayed perfect at 3-0.

Lilly, who entered play at 2-0, will play North Bay’s Laura Payne on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. in a de facto semifinal match – in reality the round-robin finale – the winner earning the right to take on Horgan and the right to claim the first Northern Ontario provincial women’s curling championship.

Both squads are 2-1.

In the evening's other draw, Thunder Bay's Jessica Williams scored her first win of the championship, knocking off fellow Thunder Bay skip Lianne Fossum 7-5 in an extra end. Williams improved to 1-3 while Fossum remained winless at 0-3. Fossum wraps up play on Saturday, taking on Horgan.

The final is set for 8 p.m.