A lineup change has helped Kerry Galusha and her rink from Yellowknife, N.W.T., reach new heights this season, including putting them in the thick of the playoff race at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay.

Galusha, 44, suffered a lower-back injury at last year’s Scotties inside the Calgary bubble, which later developed into a disc herniation.

“I was injured since the bubble last year and all summer,” Galusha told TSN.ca following an 8-6 win over Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias Tuesday morning. “It was a struggle for me. My injury actually got worse and in September when we curled together, I could barely throw.”

The injury forced Galusha, who regularly tosses last stones, to move up to the lead position. Jo-Ann Rizzo, who was a silver medalist at the 2013 Olympic Trials as a third for Sherry Middaugh, moved from vice to skip stones. Margot Flemming plays second, while Sarah Koltun is the third on the team.

“So, we had been prepared whether if I could throw in pain, then I’m going to be at lead,” Galusha explained. “If I can’t throw at all, we had a fifth player. If I was good, I would throw last rocks. We had every scenario written out with our sports psychologist. It kind of worked well right off the bat and we really just stuck with it.”

The new lineup and a commitment to travelling more has helped Team Galusha put together a career season on Tour. They competed in three Ontario-based Tour bonspiels in the fall, winning the KW Fall Classic by beating Hollie Duncan in the final. Team Galusha also went 4-0 at a Pre-Trials qualifier in Ottawa. 

Galusha says the entire team have taken on their new roles with open arms.

“I don’t feel a lot of pressure playing lead. The shots are usually a little simpler than what I’m used to,” said Galusha, who still calls the shots as the skip. “I’m used to looking at a pile of rocks in the house. I feel like I’ve really taken the lead position and really embraced it. I try to be precise with my shots.

“We’ve all embraced our new roles and that’s what Team Galusha does. We just kind of roll with what’s going on at the time. It’s really working.”

Team Galusha are off to a hot start at the Scotties, sitting at 4-1 following wins over Manitoba and Quebec's Laurie St-Georges on Tuesday and are holding down second place in Pool B. The top three teams in each pool following the eight-game round robin advance to the six-team playoff, which will then be dwindled down to the regular four-team page playoff.

Over 18 appearances and 144 career games at the Canadian championship, Galusha owns a 44-99 record and has never qualified for the playoffs. There’s still a long way to go to get there, but Galusha has never been this close. The only time the territory qualified for the Scotties playoffs was in 1983 when Shelly Bildfell led the joint Northwest Territories/Yukon team to an 8-2 record in the round robin before losing to Cathy Shaw and Team Alberta in the semifinals. 

“We felt like the third spot in our pool was wide open to snag. Obviously, you want to finish higher, but we’re just trying to be realistic,” she said. “We want to build as the week goes on. Last year we were in the position where we had to win one game to get into the next round [championship pool] and this year we feel like it might be the same. We just want to get a couple more wins and put us in that position to fight a spot.”

To finish off the round robin, Northwest Territories will take on Canada's Kerri Einarson, British Columbia's Mary-Anne Arsenault and Alberta's Laura Walker.