Scotties Playoffs Primer: Who will come out on top in Thunder Bay?

Most of this year’s field at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts have packed their bags and gone home, leaving the last few teams to battle it out for the Canadian women’s curling title.

The remaining rinks – five playoff teams and two more set to battle in a tiebreaker – are a mix of perennial contenders, up-and-comers and a few teams that have never played this deep into the prestigious tournament.

Curling Canada implemented a six-team playoff and expanded the field at this year’s Scotties after numerous provincial playdowns were cancelled due to COVID-19.

Canada’s Kerri Einarson and Wild Card 1’s Tracy Fleury finished first in their respective pools following round-robin play, earning byes to the four-team page playoff.

The second and third-place teams in each pool will cross over to play each other in an elimination game. Winners move on to the page seeding round while the losers go home.

The winners of the page seeding round will then meet in the 1 vs. 2-page playoff while the losers battle in the do-or-die 3 vs. 4-game.

Let’s take a closer look at the playoff field.

Ready and Waiting

Canada (Kerri Einarson)
Record: 8-0

The two-time defending champions have been the most consistent team this week in Thunder Bay. No question.

Kerri Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Brianne Meilleur won all eight of their games in the preliminary round, capped by an amazing comeback over Mackenzie Zacharias and Team Manitoba Thursday night. Team Einarson gave up a rare five-spot in the second end, but would battle back, highlighted by a score of four in the fifth, to stun the 2020 world junior champs, 10-7.

“We just clawed back and kept putting pressure on them,” said Einarson.

Team Canada looks like a team that wants to make history, shooting a Scotties-leading 86 per cent collectively with Einarson throwing at a red-hot 87 per cent clip and Sweeting at 88 per cent.

The rink from Gimli, Man., are looking to win a third straight national title which would put them in elite company, joining the likes of Jennifer Jones (2008-2010), Colleen Jones (2001-2004, four in a row) and Vera Pezer (1971-1973). Einarson, 34, has been in three of the last four Scotties finals, leading Fleury’s current team to the 2018 championship game in Penticton before falling to Team Jones. In fact, Birchard played for Jones that year as a spare for Kaitlyn Lawes and can win a fourth career Scotties title this weekend in Thunder Bay.

The Scotties championship will go through Team Einarson one way or another.

Wild Card 1 (Tracy Fleury)
Record: 7-1

Tracy Fleury returned just in time to clinch first-place in Pool A.

Fleury was placed in COVID-19 protocols ahead of last Friday’s Draw 1 and wasn’t able to return until Thursday afternoon, helping Wild Card 1 beat Northern Ontario to earn a bye to the page playoffs. 

Wild Card 1, with Selena Njegovan calling the game and throwing skips stones, lost their opener on Friday to New Brunswick, but would reel off six in a row in Fleury’s absence.

Njegovan is shooting 82 per cent this week in Thunder Bay. 

"The three girls have been unbelievable all week," Njegovan said on Wednesday. "They have had so much confidence in me and believed in me going up to skip. As everyone knows, this isn't my preferred position, so they've been so great in front of me and making it easy for me on my last two."

Njegovan’s sister-in-law, Robyn Njegovan, was expecting to be the alternate for Team Fleury at the Scotties but instead filled in at vice and shot 80 per cent over seven games.

Fleury didn’t look too rusty in her one and only game on Thursday, finishing with at an 85 per cent shooting percentage.

“I’m happy to be back and reunited with the girls,” said Fleury after the win. “I was a little worried coming in, but it helps that the ice is so fantastic and get a feel for a couple of draws and get your confidence, but once I got back out there with the girls it felt natural.”

Fleury and company were a win away from representing Canada at the Beijing Olympics but lost to Team Jones in the final earlier this season. Capturing their first Scotties title would help lessen the sting from that loss considerably.

Team Fleury will take on the winner of Nova Scotia’s Christina Black and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville in the page seeding round on Friday night.

Playoff Matchups

New Brunswick (Andrea Crawford, 6-2) vs. winner of tiebreaker between Northwest Territories-Manitoba

In her 10th career appearance at the Tournament of Hearts, 36-year-old Andrea Crawford will get the opportunity to play in her first playoff game after putting together an impressive 6-2 week in Thunder Bay.

Crawford, who now has 100 career Scotties games under her belt, had never finished better than 6-5. They won their first five games before dropping two of their last three in Thunder Bay.

“This team has worked really hard. The last few years we’ve just started to put more time on the ice, more time off the ice, working very hard physically,” said Crawford after clinching the playoffs earlier this week. “We just came into this event believing we had the ability to play well, and I think that has made a big difference for us.”

Sylvie Quillian, who has skipped the eastern province at four previous Scotties, joined the team this season and has proven to be a very valuable addition as Team Crawford has won 25 out of 30 games this season.

New Brunswick will play the winner of the tiebreaker between Northwest Territories’ Team Kerry Galusha and Manitoba’s Team Zacharias, who both finished round-robin play with identical 5-3 records.

This matchup is also an interesting one.

Like Crawford, Galusha has never qualified for the Scotties playoffs in 18 previous appearances. 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.

Due to an injury suffered last year inside the Calgary bubble, Galusha calls the game, but throws leads stone while Jo-Ann Rizzo serves as the team’s fourth. 

On the other side of the sheet will be Team Zacharias, making just their second appearance at the national championship after winning the world junior title in 2020.

Either rink making the playoffs will add some intrigue going into championship weekend.

The winner of Crawford vs. Galusha/Zacharias will take on Team Einarson in the page seeding round Friday night.

Northern Ontario (Krista McCarville, 5-3) vs. Nova Scotia (Christina Black, 5-3)

Another Scotties, another playoff appearance for Northern Ontario’s Team Krista McCarville.

The hometown Thunder Bay foursome have now made the Scotties playoffs in all five of their appearances dating back to 2016.

Team McCarville dropped their preliminary round finale Thursday afternoon against Team Fleury. A win would have given them first-place and a bye to the page playoffs.

“We like to take the hard road,” McCarville told the media. “Obviously we wanted to get first place, but we do feel successful. We are in the playoffs and we’re starting our next goal. We just have to keep it rolling form here.”

McCarville won’t have to worry about facing Rachel Homan this year as the Ottawa skip is competing at the Beijing Olympics with mixed doubles partner John Morris. Homan has eliminated McCarville in the playoffs at their past three Scotties.

The path to their first Scotties title will first need to go through Nova Scotia’s Team Christina Black, another east coast rink having a solid week.

Black, 34, won a bronze medal at the 2018 Scotties as a third for Mary-Anne Arsenault and has now taken the reigns of her own team.

Team Black has a collective shooting percentage of 77 per cent this week, compared to Team McCarville’s 78 per cent. Black has the edge at skip, shooting 76 per cent, four better than McCarville.