In a battle of unbeatens Tuesday night, the Jennifer Jones rink finally suffered its first loss at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary.
A back-and-forth battle with Ontario’s Rachel Homan ended with the Homan rink winning 7-5 to move to 5-0.
Jones now falls to 4-1, which has them in third place in Pool B, behind Homan and BC’s Clancy Grandy (5-1). The top three teams in each pool make the playoffs.
The four Manitoba teams are still in the mix for the six playoff spots with two days to go in the round-robin.
Meanwhile, the four-time defending champs representing Team Canada, skipped by Kerri Einarson, are continuing their excellent play, as they took down Saskatchewan 11-6 to move to 5-1, which is good for 2nd place in Pool A, just behind Alberta’s Selena Sturmay rink, who remains 5-0.
The Kate Cameron rink from Winnipeg split a pair of games Tuesday, losing 8-6 to Homan in the morning, but beating the Northwest Territories 9-5 in the evening. Cameron is now 3-2 in Pool B, a game back of Jones.
And the Kaitlyn Lawes rink, also from Winnipeg, kept their playoff hopes alive with an 8-4 win Tuesday afternoon over B.C.’s Corryn Brown. Lawes moves to 2-3, a game back of Quebec and Northern Ontario (3-2) for the final playoff spot in Pool A.
In Wednesday’s action, Lawes will play winless PEI Wednesday morning, followed by a provincial showdown with Einarson’s rink in the evening draw, which is Einarson’s lone game of the day.
It will come after another Manitoba matchup in the afternoon when Cameron takes on Jones, both teams’ lone game on Wednesday.