By Larry Wood
Heart Chart Editor
SAULT STE. MARIE (CCA)- Kathy O’Rourke and her Prince Edward Islanders are in a prime position to win their province’s first-ever Canadian women’s curling championship.
But taking first-place in the Scotties round robin at the Essar Centre, something the Island curlers accomplished Thursday, for the first time since 2003, when Suzanne Gaudet went 10-1 at Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., constitutes only the first step on the three-step route to the throne room.
Starting today (8:30 p.m. AT) at Essar, O’Rourke, who throws second stones and directs traffic for 21-year-old back-enders Erin Carmody and Geri-Lynn Ramsay, can take a second step by repeating her round-robin win over defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg.
Such a development would propel the Atlantic team directly to the championship final on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. AT. A loss, and the Isles would drop to a semi-final date on Saturday at 8 p.m.
O’Rourke and Co., sat out the final round Thursday night while Jones and Ontario’s Krista McCarville faced off in a battle of giants. Jones won it 6-5, thereby assuring herself of second place in the final standings and a place in the Page One-Two playoff Friday.
Had McCarville won the key match, her team would have placed first, dropping the Islanders to second and leaving Jones in a three-way sudden-death playoff situation.
British Columbia’s Kelly Scott and Manitoba’s Jill Thurston both won handily on the last draw, thereby joining McCarville with 7-and-4 records, one game behind the 8-and-3 marks turned in by O’Rourke and Jones.
Scott won her second of the day, 8-2 over Shelley Nichols (4-and-7) of Newfoundland/Labrador. The win left the former world champion placing third (by virtue of a pre-event draw challenge used to rank teams in case round-robin results failed to provide separation) and drawing today off while McCarville and Thurston battle at 4 p.m. to decide an opponent for Saturday’s Page Three-Four playoff at 2 p.m. AT.
Thurston whipped Quebec’s Eve Belisle 10-4 Thursday night on an adjacent ice sheet.
The Jones team’s advance to the Page One-Two will be its first such appearance in the premier playoff tilt since 2005. The match provides an extra life while all other playoff games are sudden death.
“I just wanted a shot at the four-foot and I knew I’d have that draw,” said Jones of the tension-packed final end played before a crowd of 3,507.
McCarville had taken two in the ninth to tie the count afte1r chasing Jones most of the way.
McCarville had two rocks stationed in the four-foot, guarded, but Jones executed an angle-raise takeout leaving her rock hidden. McCarville flashed, attempting a thin double off one of her own rocks.
“We played the angle raise on the first one when we had the chance,” said Jones. “I knew all the way down we weren’t hitting it too thick but it worked.
“It was a big game for us today and we knew we’d have to play well and we did.”
Jones lost to O’Rourke Wednesday night and noted the Islanders “play with no fear”.
“They’ll be tough but we’ve been there before and we’ll be tough, too,” she said.
McCarville explained her last-rock miss:
“I planned to throw peel weight, I just threw wide. It’s such a long drop, from No. 1 to tiebreakers, two tiebreakers, again. Hopefully this time it’ll go our way.”
McCarville won two tiebreakers at the Olympic trials in Edmonton, then lost in the semi-final.
“I think for some reason we’re supposed to learn the ice a little better so two extra games will have to do, ” she said. “We like tiebreakers. Wherever we go, we take the hard road. But that’s OK, it makes us a better team. And we’re conditioned for what we’re facing the next couple of days.”
McCarville said she wasn’t disappointed in her team’s play.
“We picked up our game tonight but it wasn’t enough,” she said.
The B.C. team, won its second of the day by stealing points at will against the women from The Rock.
“We had a real, real good day — team dynamics, chemistry and just solid play,” said Scott, the 2007 world champion who’s looking to get back to the Scotties throne room.
“I think we’re ramping it up at the perfect time. We have some momentum now.”
She said she’d probably rather play today.
“I’d rather play, but not in a tiebreaker,” she said. “We’ll practise instead.”
Thurston was irate after what she termed “a horrible” performance against New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly in the afternoon, but her Winnipeg team bounced back to clobber Quebec.
“We played a lot better,” she said. “We had a talk and decided we’re still in it, we can still make a tiebreaker so let’s just go out and play hard.
“The goal was to make the playoffs and whether it’s a tiebreaker or not it’s still the playoffs. I think we play well when our backs are against the wall. We knew we had to win this game to stay in it and we came out firing.”
Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland drew the button for a 7-6 win over Valerie Sweeting of Edmonton in the other game Thursday night.
Holland missed the playoffs by one game at 6-and-5 while Quebec and New Brunswick were 5-and-6, Newfoundland/Labrador, Alberta and the Territories were 4-and-7 and Nova Scotia was 1-and-10.
