Einarson retains Canadian women’s curling crown with another win over Ontario’s Homan

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The first time Kerri Einarson and her teammates got a chance to wear Team Canada colours, they liked it so much they didn’t want to give it up.

Einarson successfully defended her Scotties Tournament of Hearts crown Sunday night with an impressive 9-7 win over Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the gold medal game at the Markin MacPhail Arena in Calgary.

“We just really wanted to embrace being Team Canada,” Einarson said. “And it was our first chance of getting to do it so we just has a lot of laughs and enjoyed ourselves out there.”

Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur didn’t get a chance to represent Canada after winning the Scotties in 2020, because the world women’s championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they wore the Maple Leaf at the Scotties this week and did the emblem proud.

The foursome, from Gimli, Man., went 10-2 in the round-robin, beat Alberta’s Laura Walker 9-3 in the semifinal on Sunday afternoon and then beat Homan for the second straight year in the final.

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It was Homan’s third straight loss in the final, equalling her total of three Scotties wins. Her last win came in 2017.

The 2021 women’s world curling championship has also been cancelled — it was supposed to be held in Switzerland — so it’s not clear when Einarson will finally get her chance to represent the country, but there’s no denying that her foursome is the best in Canada for two years running.

Einarson became the first skip to win back-to-back titles since Homan did it in 2013 and 2014.

“It means the absolute world to be able to repeat,” Einarson said. “It’s something that’s very hard to do and hasn’t been done since 2014 so to do it again, playing against all these amazing teams … we had to fight really hard and I’m just so proud and honoured to be able to wear the Maple Leaf again.”

The Einarson team did it despite not playing for the better part of a year. They won the 2020 title in Moose Jaw, Sask., and then sat idle during the COVID-19 pandemic until the bubble at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park opened 10 days ago.

Then they played the same team they played in last year’s final and it all looked eerily similar, right down to the 7-7 score entering the last end.

“When we gave up a steal of two in the ninth end I was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go again,’” Einarson said. “It was déjà vu, but I wasn’t worried. I knew the girls in front of me would make their shots and I knew I would make mine.”

Homan played the Scotties while eight months pregnant and put in a wonderful performance, finishing with a 10-2 round robin record before falling just short in the final.

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“Can we talk for a second about the skipper over here?” Ontario third Emma Miskew said on Zoom after the game.

“It’s unbelievable that she curled that well. I think all women should be inspired to do that. It’s just amazing.”

Einarson won the $100,000 top prize, while Homan took home $60,000 for finishing in second place.

“They played really well,” Homan said, putting the loss and even the three straight losses in finals into perspective. “Again it was down to the last rock and that’s the way curling goes sometimes. We had a great game out there and I’m proud of our team and the way we played in this first little bonspiel together. I’m unbelievably proud of these girls for sticking with me and doing all the things I couldn’t do. It was just a phenomenal week.”

The Scotties was played in a bubble, with no fans in the stands and none of the usual post-game festivities because of the pandemic, at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary.

Very few of the teams had any practice time leading up to the event and it figured that the most experienced teams would emerge at the end. Einarson’s team, consisting of four players who have all played skip in their careers, used that experience the best.

Team Canada read the ice better than Team Ontario in the final and that was a big difference in the end result.

While Einarson, Sweeting and Meilleur all won their second Canadian titles, 26-year-old Birchard won her third, in as many Scotties appearances. She also won in 2018, as a fill-in third on the Jennifer Jones team out of Winnipeg.

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“I know, look at her, hey, she’s a champ,” Einarson said. “She’s an amazing teammate. So lucky to have her, so lucky to have all of them.”

Homan had the hammer in the first end but Einarson stole a point to open the scoring. Ontario scored two in the second and Canada missed a chance for two in the third, but got a single point to tie it at 2-2. Canada forced Ontario to a single in the fourth, scored three in the fifth to break things open a bit and then held Ontario to another single in the sixth.

In the seventh, Canada scored another deuce and opened up a commanding 7-4 lead and then put the pressure on again without the hammer in the eighth, holding Ontario to a single.

In the ninth, it all turned. Homan’s team played a terrific end and left Einarson with a tough decision for her last rock. She could have hit an open rock to give up one and be up 7-6 with the hammer in the 10^th, but instead decided to try a more difficult shot to score. Her last rock wrecked on a guard and Ontario stole two to make it 7-7.

That brought back memories of 2020, when Homan stole two points in the 10^th end to tie the game at 7-7, before Einarson won it on a draw in the extra.

Things swung back in Einarson’s favour early in the 10^th end as Ontario’s second rock, thrown by lead Joanne Courtney, caught something and came up light of the hog line before being removed from play. That allowed Canada to have complete control in the end and Einarson’s team won it when Homan’s last rock slid too far and allowed a score of two.

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“It came down to the wire again and a crazy ninth end,” Einarson said. “Giving up a steal of two is bringing back flashbacks. But the team stuck it out and we made some great shots in the last end and, wow, it feels pretty amazing.”

Earlier in the day Walker stunned two-time world champion Jennifer Jones of Manitoba in a tie-breaker, coming back from two three-point deficits and scoring three points in the 10^th end to win 9-8.

Walker’s team won five straight games, including all four games it played in the championship round and the tie-breaker.

Jones set a record for the most games won in the history of the Scotties this year, but she didn’t get a chance to add to her impressive total of six national women’s curling championship crowns.

It was an abrupt end to a strong week by Jones and her Winnipeg teammates, who put up a 9-3 record in the round-robin, same as Alberta.

“I’m super disappointed on this one,” said Jones, who curls with Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman and Lisa Weagle.

“I felt like we played a really good game today and just had not a great last end and let one slip away. I felt like we were getting on a little bit of a roll and we wanted to play a little bit more.”

Jones, 46, now has 159 career wins at the Scotties, more than anyone else, but her pursuit of a record seventh national title will have to wait at least another year.

“It’s obviously disappointing to have things end this way but a lot of great things came out of this week and I’m happy we had the opportunity to play,” Jones said.

Jones has admitted a couple of times this week that she’s getting toward the end of her storied career, during which she has won an Olympic gold medal.

But she plans to still play this year — in the Canadian mixed doubles championship with husband Brent Laing and in two Grand Slam events scheduled for the Calgary bubble — and in the Olympic Curling Trials next fall.

“I’m not done that fast, no, no,” she said. “I just mean that I’m not 20 any more. It’s gonna come eventually, I just don’t know when yet.”

Twyman@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman