First goal completed for Team Alberta at Scotties Tournament of Hearts

SYDNEY, N.S. – Chelsea Carey and her Team Alberta came into the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts figuring they had to win two of three key round-robin games to be in the fight for the Championship Round. They completed that goal by winning their third game, a 7-6 win over Team Northern Ontario Sunday evening. “When you look at our pool, you have Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Ontario, so we go in looking at that saying we have to beat at least two of those teams to put ourselves in a good spot,” Carey said after the win that improved her Calgary-based team’s record to 3-0. “So to start with two is great. There would have been pressure on if we hadn’t done that so it’s a big win because of the way the pool shook out.” Alberta beat Manitoba 7-6 on Saturday. Carey, the 2016 Scotties champion backed by third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson, lead Rachel Brown and coach Dan Carey, gave up a deuce in the third end but promptly scored two in the fourth, stole one in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take control of the game. “The ice was beautiful tonight, but it was different,” Carey said of why her team exploded in the middle ends. “It took us a few ends to catch on to how much faster it was, a little straighter … once we caught on to that it was like, this is great, and we started making shots” McCarville, a Thunder Bay school teacher supported by third Kenda Lilly, second Jen Gates, lead Sarah Potts, alternate Lorraine Lang and coach Rick Lang, bounced back with two in seven, forced Carey into a single in eight and scored two nine. Carey tried a double but got only one while killing two Alberta stones and leaving McCarville an open-house draw for the deuce. But with a 7-6 edge and the hammer Carey kept the house clean in 10 to ensure the win. “You’re giving them twos because you don’t want to give up threes or fours,” Carey explained. “So you’re playing pretty defensive on our end, which is going to give them chances for two, which we’re okay with because as long as we’re one-up, with (hammer) we’re okay. The whole goal is to be exact position we were in, which is one-up coming home.” Tracy Fleury of Team Manitoba (1-2, East St. Paul) got by Gabrielle Lavoie of Team Quebec (0-3, Saint-Romuald) 7-3. Rachel Homan of Team Ontario (3-0, Ottawa), a three-time Scotties champion shooting 93 per cent through the first five ends, scored two in the second end, three in the fifth and stole one in six to roll past Jill Brothers of Team Nova Scotia (0-3, Halifax) 6-3. And Team B.C., skipped by Sarah Wark (3-0, Abbotsford), continued its strong play by scoring three in the fourth end and stealing one in five on the way to a 10-1 win over Jenine Bodner of Nunavut (1-2, Iqaluit) The day’s results left Team Wild Card, represented by Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., and Team Canada, skipped by six-time champion Jennifer Jones, tied for top spot in Pool B at 2-0, followed by four teams at 1-1 and two at 0-2. In Pool A, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta are at 3-0 with three teams at 1-2 and two more at 0-3. The 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues with draws today at 9:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (all times AST). Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2019 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 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. For ticket information for the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, go to www.curling.ca/2019scotties/tickets/ This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2019scotties/category/nouvelles/?lang=fr