Healthy Brothers gets Nova Scotia into win column at Scotties

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — After a couple days of misery at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Jill Brothers was back on the ice Sunday morning, and the Nova Scotia skip made the best of it.

A stomach bug that hit on Friday and got worse Saturday flattened Brothers, and had to miss her team’s opener Saturday, an 11-7 loss to Saskatchewan’s Jolene Campbell.

Sunday morning, it was a different story for Brothers, third Sarah Murphy, second Blisse Joyce, lead Teri Udle, alternate Jenn Brine and coach Daryell Nowlan, as the Halifax team rolled to a 9-3 win over Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson (1-1; East St. Paul).

Brothers, suffice it to say, was feeling much better on Sunday.

“At first I was like, maybe it was jetlag, I have the baby (11-month-old son Casey), and a long day of travel, and now I’m hearing there were other people who were out, so maybe it was a flu bug,” said the three-time Nova Scotia champ. “I sat in my hotel room yesterday, and that is not fun on your first day at the Scotties. It was really crappy — miss the first game, miss the group photo. Just the little things.”

The Bluenosers stole three in the fourth end and four more in the fifth to take control against the Manitobans.

“Einarson had a couple shots that she’s normally not going to miss, right?” said Brothers. “But we capitalized on it and got a couple rocks in the house, and that felt good to get some points on the board.”

Points, yes, but the win in the standings was even more important — there’s a big difference in terms of confidence between 1-1 and 0-2 as a team starts the round-robin at the Scotties.

Team Canada’s Jill Officer, left, and Dawn McEwen work on a rock on Sunday. (Photo, Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)

“I’ve been here a couple times before, and that’s happened before (she was 0-6 to begin in 2007), so 1-and-1 feels pretty good,” said Brothers. “It gives you a positive outlook on who you play next, and going into the rest of the week, for sure.”

In the other morning draw games, Alberta’s Chelsea Carey (2-0; Calgary) remained unbeaten after a 6-4 win over Newfoundland/Labrador’s Stacie Curtis (0-2; St. John’s); Ontario’s Jenn Hanna (1-1; Ottawa) stole a 6-4 win when Saskatchewan skip Jolene Campbell (1-1; Regina) was heavy with her last-rock game-tying draw in the 10th end; and Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones (1-1; Winnipeg) rebounded nicely from a Draw 1 loss by rolling to a 9-4 triumph over P.E.I.’s Suzanne Birt (1-1; Charlottetown).

The 2016 Scotties continues on Sunday with draws at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times MST).

For ticket and other event information, visit https://www.curling.ca/2016scotties/tickets/

For the complete schedule, go to https://www.curling.ca/2016scotties/draw-schedule/

TSN (RDS2 in French), the exclusive television network for Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide complete coverage of the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

This story will be posted in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/2016scotties/?lang=fr