(by Larry Wood). When all was said and done, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts round-robin results more or less reflected most pre-tournament predictions. Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones and her team of Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin finished safely out front as predicted.

The four-time champ put together a finishing skein of six straight wins after losing to Amber Holland Monday night.

But how a few days changed everything else.

At round-robin’s finish Thursday night, Jones and her old rival Kelly Scott of Kelowna were firmly ensconced in tonight’s Page One-Two playoff game (7:30 p.m.) while Holland and her red maple-leafed crew was firmly ensconced on the sidelines.

Also surviving the preliminary and slated for the sudden-death Page Three-Four matchup Saturday at 11 a.m. were Marie-France Larouche of Quebec and Heather Nedohin’s home-province aggregation from Edmonton.

The final lineup was decided following Thursday night’s final round-robin draw when Jones (9-2) defeated Ontario’s rookie team skipped by Tracy Horgan (4-7) of Sudbury 5-3, B.C.’s Scott (8-3) stole the winning point in a 7-6 conquest of Becky Atkinson’s New Brunswick squad (5-6), Nedohin (7-4) hung up three deuces and a steal en route to a 7-6 win over Heather Smith-Dacey (4-7) of Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot (5-6) of Regina, already eliminated but playing loosey-goosey, hammered Holland’s defenders 11-5 with a three- and a four-ender for finishing touches.

Team Canada experienced a disastrous stretch run, losing four of its last five games to finish 6-5, one game out of the playoffs.

Larouche (7-4) lost her final assignment 7-4 Thursday afternoon to Manitoba.

Newfoundland’s Heather Strong (4-7), Polar country’s Kerry Galusha (4-7) and Spud Island’s Kim Dolan wrapped up their campaigns in the afternoon.

“We’re happy to be playing them (B.C.) in the One-Two game,” said Jones, who already has won four national titles.

“You know we had a great game against them in the round robin. Hopefully, we have the hammer this time and we won’t have to steal.

“I thought we had a good game tonight, a couple of big shots. Hopefully we’ll be sharp tomorrow.”
Ontario took a 2-0 lead but couldn’t hold it. Jones tied it in the fifth and a deuce in the seventh gave her control.

New Brunswick last-rocker Andrea Kelly of Oromocto was heavy on a last-rock in-turn bump after Scott buried her last in the four-foot playing the 10th all square but without the hammer. When Kelly’s rock slipped by, B.C. had its eighth win, 7-6, and another shot at renewing the old playoff rivalry with Jones.

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