On Thursday and Friday, the top four teams in each initial round robin pool at the Scotties in Penticton will play a crossover Championship Pool round robin against the teams from the other pool. Each team’s record from Pool A and Pool B play will carry over with the top four moving on to Page Playoff action Saturday. Alberta (6-1) finished first in Pool B with Team Canada second (5-2), and BC third.
Prince Edward Island’s Robyn MacPhee (Charlottetown) downed Nunavut (Iqaluit), skipped by Amie Shackleton on Wednesday. P.E.I. finished seventh in Pool B with a 2-5 record ahead of Nunavut (0-7).
Team Northern Ontario skip Tracy Fleury in Draw 14 action at the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Penticton, B.C. (Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver photo)
In the other pool, Tracy Fleury’s last-rock, tap back to score a single in the 10th end gave her Northern Ontario team a critical 7-6 win over Northwest Territories and a ticket to the Championship Pool.
The win improved Fleury’s record in the initial round-robin to 5-2, the same as Mary-Anne Arsenault of Nova Scotia (Dartmouth) and Jennifer Jones of Manitoba (Winnipeg). Team Wild Card, skipped by Kerri Einarson (East St. Paul, Man.) took top spot at 6-1 after a stunning 9-4 win over Jones, who lost both her games Wednesday.
All four teams moved on to the Championship Pool with Manitoba getting the second seed, Nova Scotia third and Northern Ontario fourth.
The 16 teams had been divided into two pools of eight teams each with the top four in each advancing to the Championship Pool and taking their win-loss records with them. They will now cross over to play each other once with the top four teams advancing to the Page playoffs on Saturday.
The 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues Thursday with a Pool B tiebreaker at 9 a.m. between Ontario’s Hollie Duncan and Newfoundland/Labrador’s Stacie Curtis, and draws at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times PST).
Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/
TSN and RDS2 (streamed on ESPN3 in the United States) will provide complete coverage of the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Go to www.tsn.ca/2017-18-curling-broadcast-schedule-1.593081 for the complete schedule.
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