 Ottawa's Team Homan (Photo: Andrew Klaver/Curling Canada) celebrates a victory Halifax's Christina Black 5-4 in game one of the 2025 Montana's Canadian Curling Trials best-of-three final in Halifax, N.S. on Nov. 28. By Meredith McCullum #1 World-Ranked Rachel Homan - with vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes - defeated Christina Black's home team 5-4 in game one of the first ever best-of-three Canadian Olympic Trials final. A back-and-forth battle on challenging ice saw both teams come up with gritty steals and make precise shots, and Homan knows her team needs to be a little bit sharper in game two to get the win and qualify for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy. "I thought we played an okay game, and it needed to be a little bit sharper," said Homan, after the game. "Hopefully a few things change tomorrow." Homan looked in control, up 4-1 through six ends, after back-to-back steals in the third and fourth ends. You can never count out Christina Black's Nova Scotian rink, though, as they clawed their way back into the game in front of a home crowd of nearly 7000 fans. Black - with vice skip Jill Brothers, second Jenn Baxter and lead Karlee Everist - stole in the eighth end and forced one in the ninth, handing Homan a 5-3 lead heading into the final end. The Ontario rink held on, giving up only one in a dramatic tenth end where Black had an opportunity to score three and win the game. Black missed a difficult in-off on her final shot, needing more weight to push Homan's red rock further and sit two or three. The result was a single point for Black's resilient squad, handing Homan the 5-4 win. "We kept it within striking distance going into the tenth, just hoping we'd have an opportunity to score two or three, and we were setting up pretty good," said Black after the game. "I just don't think my shot was possible unless I could throw it a lot harder. We gave it a run, though." Miskew gave her thoughts on game one and what her team can takeaway from the roller-coaster battle to pull off another win in game two. "It was a well played game on their part, so we'll just take that forward," said Miskew. "They're always a nice team to play against, and they've got the crowd on their side. It's a great building to play in." "I know that a lot of people talk about our win record, and to me so many of those games on the win side of the record were really close, where we pulled it off, kind of like we did today," Miskew continued, reflecting on her teams character through a challenging game. "We're never going to give up out there. We were definitely a little confused at times, and I think that we'll be able to make good note of the ice map and what ends the frost starts to creep in, and hopefully we'll have a bit more of a plan for tomorrow." Homan's rink is now one win away from a trip back to the Olympics for Homan and Miskew, and a first Olympic experience for Fleury and Wilkes. Game two begins at 1 p.m. AST on Saturday afternoon. A win for Black would force game three on Sunday at 1 p.m. AST. A win for Homan would book them a ticket to Milano-Cortina, Italy in February, to represent Canada at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. The game will be streamed on TSN (Canada) and TSN YouTube (internationally). Linescores and standings are available at Curlingzone.com. |
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Calgary's Brad Jacobs (Photo: Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver) defeats Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone 6-5, winning 2 games to 0 in a best-of-three final at the Montana's Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax, N.
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