Five tied for top spot after first round of Ford Hot Shots

Jenn Brine is listed as an alternate for Team Nova Scotia at this week’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts but she showed Friday she can match shots with the best curlers here. The 27-year-old, who will actually be rotating at second with Blisse Joyce, filled in for ill skip Jill Brothers and was tied with four other veteran front-enders for top spot after the first round of shots in the 2016 Ford Hot Shots skills competition. “Jill wasn’t feeling the best this afternoon so I filled in last minute,” said Brine. Being tied for top spot with two skips and a pair of thirds was, as she said “pretty awesome.” Brine, Olympic champion Jennifer Jones, Quebec skip Marie-France Larouche and thirds Robyn Green of Prince Edward Island and Selena Kaatz of Manitoba were all tied with 24 points. P.E.I. lead Marie Christianson and Nova Scotia third Sarah Murphy had 23 points and Joyce had 22 points. The annual competition sees curlers attempting six different shots: Hit and Stay, Draw the Button, Draw the Port, The Raise, Hit and Roll and Double Takeout. Each shot is awarded points on a scale from 0-5 depending on the end result of the shot. The top eight advance to Saturday’s playoffs — the final eight, final four and then the final, that begin at 10:30 a.m. (all times Mountain). The winner receives a two-year lease on a 2016 EcoBoost powered Ford Edge Sport SUV, with an approximate retail value of $49,789 MSRP. The runner-up receives $2,000, while the third-place finisher gets $1,000. Last year at the Scotties, Newfoundland/Labrador’s Heather Strong won her second consecutive Ford Hot Shots title. Previous Ford Hot Shots winners at the Hearts are the Territories’ Kelli Turpin and Kerry Galusha, British Columbia’s Sherry Fraser, Kelley Law (twice) and Kristy Lewis, Alberta’s Marcy Balderston and Cheryl Bernard, Saskatchewan’s Kay Montgomery, Manitoba’s Gerri Cooke and Jill Officer, Ontario’s Andrea Lawes, Jenn Hanna and Rachel Homan, New Brunswick’s Allison Farrell (Franey), Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt (Gaudet), Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones, Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland and Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones.