Manitoba is celebrating it’s eleventh Canadian women’s curling title after Gimli’s Kerri Einarson defeated Rachel Homan of Ontario 8-7 in an extra end thriller in Sunday night’s championship final of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw, Sask.
It did not look like there would be any drama when Einarson grabbed a 7-3 lead after eight ends, but Homan scored a deuce in the ninth, and then tied the game in the tenth when a draw by Einarson to the four foot against two was a little heavy, forcing curling’s version of overtime.
It was an almost identical scenario in the extra end, but this time the Manitoba skip did not repeat the mistake, drawing right to the button for the winning point. It was the first national title for Einarson, third Val Sweeting and lead Briane Meilleur, while second Shannon Birchard is now a two-time champ after helping Jennifer Jones win the title in 2018 as a replacement for Kaitlyn Lawes who was competing in the Olympics.
Team Einarson will now represent Canada at the upcoming World Women’s Championship, set for March 14-22 in Prince George, B.C.
The victory capped off what might have been the greatest weekend ever in Manitoba curling history. It began late Friday night when Jacques Gauthier of the Assiniboine Memorial Club defeated Switzerland 7-2 in nine ends to win the World Junior men’s title in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. And then in the wee hours of Saturday morning Mackenzie Zacharias and her Altona rink knocked off powerhouse Korea 7-5 for the World Junior women’s title.