Team Sweeting steals win at at Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings

Krista McCarville had that helpless feeling as she watched her final stone in the 11th end curl and come up short of the house Friday, ending the dreams of her and her Thunder Bay, Ont., teammates of making the playoffs at the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings. The failed shot allowed Val Sweeting of Edmonton to steal a single for a 7-6 win. Both teams finished the round-robin at 4-4 and out of the playoffs. The three teams advancing are Chelsea Carey of Calgary (8-0), Rachel Homan of Ottawa (6-1) and Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg (5-2). Carey advances to Sunday’s 2 p.m. women’s final while Homan and Jones play each other in Friday evening’s final draw to decided which team gets hammer in the 2 p.m. Saturday semifinal. “Definitely not the best day, but you win some you lost some,” said McCarville. “I felt like I shot it good. We kind of thought it would run for a bit and it curled, which is a little bit shocking.” Still, she was pleased with the performance of her team all week. “I thought we were very consistent. Sometimes you need a little luck on your side and we didn’t have it this week. We definitely had it in the Pre-Trails so maybe we used it all up.” The teams traded singles in the second and third ends and Team Sweeting scored two in four to edge ahead. But Sweeting third Lori Olson-Johns, second Dana Ferguson, lead Rachel Brown, alternate Sarah Wilkes and coach Jeff Hoffart elected not to try a double with either of her stones in five, conceding a deuce to Team McCarville to tie the game 3-3. They traded more singles through three ends before Team McCarville jumped on two narrow misses by Sweeting, including her last-rock freeze try that was wide, to take two in the ninth for a 6-5 margin. Sweeting had a chance to win in the 10^th. She had to tap back a Team McCarville stone just inches but her shot slid right through to the back of the house, leaving her with just one and taking them to the extra end. “We didn’t get the results we wanted this week but we can take away a lot of positives,” Sweeting said of her week. “We battled back after an 0-3 start and we levelled the field. We’ll take a lot of good (positives) forward.” In the other women’s game, Chelsea Carey of Calgary scored four in the sixth end and stole two in the seventh to beat Michelle Englot of Winnipeg 10-3 to finish the round-robin at 8-0 and move directly into Sunday’s final at 2p.m. EST. “We didn’t expect it,” she said of her team’s perfect record. “It’s taking one game at a time, learning from mistakes and not getting frustrated because the ice was a little different midweek and is back to what we expected now. So there was a bit of adjustment to be made on the fly. We did a good job of staying positive, managing misses and learning from misses.” The win over Englot gives Team Carey the hammer in the final, where they will try to complete their unbeaten march. They are the first woman’s team to go unbeaten in the round-robin. “None of it matters unless you go through the whole thing undefeated,” Carey reminded everyone. In the two men’s games John Morris (3-5) of Vernon, B.C, nipped Steve Laycock (2-6) of Saskatoon 7-6 and Brad Jacobs (3-5) of Sault Ste. Marie, the reigning Olympic champions had a losing end to their disappointing week, losing 7-2 in seven ends to John Epping (2-6) of Toronto. Team Jacobs was without second E.J. Harnden. He returned home to Sault Ste. Marie to be with his wife Rachelle, who is expecting their second child. Alternate Pete Steski took his place. The final round-robin draw of the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings goes this evening at 7 p.m. EST. Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/ TSN/TSN2 and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule For ticket information for the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings, CLICK HERE. This story will be posted in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2017roaroftherings/?lang=fr