It was supposed to be the battle for No. 1.
Instead it turned into a one-sided affair for Team Ontario as Krista McCarville demolished Prince Edward Island’s Kathy O’Rourke 9-3 and now sits alone in first at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie with a 6-1 record.
The trouble began early for the Maritime foursome, who had the hammer to start and blanked the opening end. McCarville, 27, stole a pair in the second and another in the third, before O’Rourke got on the board in the fourth.
McCarville went up 4-1 in the fifth and then stole another deuce in the sixth. P.E.I (5-2) got two back in the eighth, but the Thunder Bay rink piled on three more in the ninth and the two teams shook hands.
McCarville takes on Manitoba’s Jill Thurston (4-3) in the morning draw at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, and plays the Northwest Territories in afternoon play at 2 p.m. If she wins her early match and B.C. loses to Saskatchewan, McCarville would clinch at least a tiebreaker at the week-long event, being staged at the Essar Centre.
In other action on Wednesday, Quebec’s Eve Belisle edged Sharon Cormier’s NWT squad 6-5, New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly scored one in the 10th to down Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland by an 8-7 count and Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery earned her first win at the Scottties, beating Newfoundland’s Shelley Nichols 7-6.