One win. Just one win. Defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg needs one more win for her fourth straight Scotties Tournament Of Hearts skipping title, tying the legendary Colleen Jones of Winnipeg.
Manitoba’s Jones also needs just one win on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. for her fifth overall title, one shy of Colleen Jones’s six skipping successes.
Manitoba’s Jones and her second player Jill Officer also need just one win to move alongside former teammate Cathy Overton-Clapham, Joyce McKee of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotians Mary-Anne Arsenault, Nancy Delahunt and Kim Kelly as five-time Scotties champs.
Lead Dawn Askin requires one win, just one more, to join four-time winners Vera Pezer and Lee Morrison of Saskatchewan.
Yes, just one measly little win . . . in the championship final of the 2011 Scotties at the Civic Centre.
Jones’s Team Canada unit of Kaitlyn Lawes, Officer and Askin moved to within that one win on Friday night, twice battling from behind to defeat Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland 10-9 in a wild-scoring Page One-Two playoff game played before 2,233 fans.
With the loss, her third of the competition, Holland dropped into Saturday’s 5 p.m. semi-final against the winner of an earlier playoff match between Ottawa’s Rachel Homan and Heather Smith-Dacey of Halifax.
Meanwhile, Jones was ecstatic with her team and the result.
“It’s so much fun to play with this team,” she allowed.
“It’s the most amazing team I’ve ever been a part of.
“Dawn (lead Askin) has been unbelievable. I’m almost in awe. Kaitlyn (third Lawes) has been playing great. Not so bad for her first time out.”
Jones said her team is “more comfortable with the ice” and “a bit sharper”.
As for the idle Saturday to get set for Sunday’s final?
“I like it,” she said. “Day off tomorrow? We’re in the final! Love it.”