Team Saskatchewan at the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts (Photo by: Andrew Klaver)
And then, suddenly, there were five — one over the minimum number of teams scheduled to survive the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts preliminaries which wrapped up Thursday night at the Civic Centre.
- Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland (9-2) remained at the top and in the Page-One Two playoff match tonight at 7:30 despite a stunning 8-5 loss to British Columbia’s Kelly Scott of Kelowna in the final round.
- Defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg (8-3) qualified to play Holland in the Page One-Two joust, eliminating Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink 8-5 in a match that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
The Page One-Two leads directly to Sunday’s championship final at 7:30 p.m. with the loser dropping to Saturday’s semi-final at 5 p.m.
- Ontario’s 21-year-old Rachel Homan (8-3) came from behind to steal a 5-4 win over Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche and claimed the No. 3 playoff spot and a berth in Saturday’s sudden-death Page Three-Four playoff at 12 noon. The winner of that tilt moves to the semi-final later in the afternoon.
- Nova Scotia’s Heather Smith-Dacey (7-4) sat out a last-round bye Thursday but already had clinched at least a tiebreaker shot which will be decided today at 2:30 p.m.
- British Columbia’s Kelly Scott (7-4) staged a miraculous comeback against the tournament leader Thursday night to remain alive and in the tiebreaker. Scott trailed Saskatchewan 5-1 after four ends, then refused to allow Holland back on the scoreboard, posting a single in the fifth end and heisting singles in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth ends and an insurance pair in the final frame.