Green is the colour!

Ackerman leads impressive Team Saskatchewan at Scotties

It was a huge day for Saskatchewan curling on Sunday at the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. 

On a day celebrating Sandra Schmirler and her Foundation, Team Saskatchewan (3-0, Saskatoon), skipped by Skylar Ackerman, scored an impressive 6-5 win over veteran skip Krista McCarville’s Team Northern Ontario (1-2, Thunder Bay) in Calgary. 

The win vaulted the green-clad women from the Nutana Club into a first-place tie in Pool A, and served notice that the young Scotties team is not to be trifled with this week. 

“I think it helps us show that we belong here and hopefully we can continue some success through the week,” said Ackerman, 22, a University of Saskatoon student who is supported in Calgary by vice-skip Ashley Thevenot, second Taylor Stremick, lead Kaylin Skinner, alternate Amber Holland and coached by Patrick Ackerman. 

 “Our communication is really strong right now and just being able to talk about the tolerances on every shot kind of helps us get the most out of anything.” 

The big win, coming with the Sandra Schmirler Foundation Telethon in full swing Sunday at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary, was extra special. The Foundation has raised millions of dollars to purchase life-saving equipment for Neonatal Intensive Care Units in hospitals across Canada. Schmirler, from Regina, won the 1998 Olympic gold medal and was one of the greatest female curlers of all time. She died of cancer in 2000 at age 36. 

“It was awesome to help out with the telethon this morning,” said Ackerman, “and to get the win this afternoon is even better. Definitely our confidence is on a high right now so I think we’re just going to ride that high through the rest of the week and hopefully keep having some success.” 

There’s still a long way to go and several huge obstacles in front of her, but Ackerman has her team well positioned to make a run for the roses. 

An all-rookie Scotties team has not won the Canadian title since Alison Goring of Ontario turned the trick in 1990. 

Joining Ackerman at the top of the heap was the surprising presence of Team Alberta, skipped by Selena Sturmay. The Albertans built an early and impressive lead but weathered the storm of a late comeback to defeat four-time and defending Scotties champions Team Canada (2-1, Gimli) skipped by Kerri Einarson. 

Einarson is gunning for an unprecedented fifth consecutive Canadian women’s curling championship title. A fifth straight win would break a tie with Nova Scotia’s legendary Colleen Jones of Halifax who also won four in a row (2001-2004). 

In the other Pool A slate of games, 2013 Canadian Under-21 champ Corryn Brown and her Team British Columbia-Brown (2-1, Kamloops), posted an 9-5 win over skip Jane DiCarlo’s Team Prince Edward Island (0-3, Crapaud), and Team Québec, skipped by Laurie St-Georges (1-1, Dollard-des-Ormeaux/Laval-sur-le-Lac) defeated Team Newfoundland & Labrador, skipped by Stacie Curtis (0-2, St. John’s), 8-7. 

Team Manitoba-Lawes (0-2, Winnipeg), skipped by Kaitlyn Lawes, had the bye. 

Some fine shooting, a little luck, and an off-day by the champs boosted the Albertans to their impressive win. An enthusiastic home crowd didn’t hurt either. Team Alberta raced off to a 6-1 lead after three ends, then hung on for dear life as Team Canada mounted its comeback. 

“A little frustrated,” said Team Canada second Shannon Birchard. “We’re not stringing many shots together. We turned it around in a big way, figured out the ice, so there’s a lot of positives we can take forward.” 

Einarson said, in the end, the large deficit was hard to overcome. 

“I finally found my draw weight, put some pressure on them,” she said. “I had a shot to tie the game and just missed it by a hair. So we finished off pretty strong but just too many points behind.” 

The 18 Scotties teams are split into two pools of nine, and will play a complete eight-game round robin. The top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs where it will be further reduced to a Final Four and a Page playoff system. 

 The final goes Sunday, Feb. 23. 

The 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues with a draw today at 6:30 p.m. (all times Mountain). 

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/. 

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. 

Broadcast coverage for viewers outside of Canada is available on TSN’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@TSN_Sports. 

For ticket information for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, go to www.curling.ca/2024scotties/tickets/. 

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2024scotties/nouvelles/?lang=fr