 Jennifer Jones (Photo: Curling Canada) get her 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Campaign underway on Saturday afternoon in a Pool B clash with Krista McCarville and Team Northern Ontario in Draw 2. By: Dylan Chenier This year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts promises to be an exciting ten days of action, featuring one of the best fields ever assembled for a national women's championship. While many teams could feasibly walk away with the title next Sunday, only a select few women could leave Kamloops with their names etched in Curling Canada's record books. One competitor with a unique chance at history this week is Jennifer Jones, as the Manitoba native could become the tournament's all-time winner if she takes home the title next weekend. At the 2018 Scotties in Penticton, Jones tied Colleen Jones for most championship victories at six-apiece. In Kamloops, Jennifer Jones could win her seventh Scotties title, moving her up into sole possession of the national record. Jones enters this year's Scotties- her 17th as a skip- in rather unfamiliar surroundings. At the end of last season, which saw Jones and Company win the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, the veteran skip decided to split from her team in order to take over the reins of Mackenzie Zacharias' young squad from Altona. So far in 2023, the new Team Jones has enjoyed considerable success, en route to their first provincial title as a unit at the 2023 Manitoba Scotties in East St. Paul last month. At this year's national Scotties, Jones and Team Manitoba enter the tournament as the number-three rink in the country. Before Jones can think about adding more Scotties hardware to her already crowded trophy shelf, she first has to play well in the round-robin in order to secure one of three playoff spots available in Pool B. Team Jones' first contest of the 2023 Scotties comes on Saturday afternoon, as Team Manitoba faces Krista McCarville and Team Northern Ontario in Draw 2 at 1:00 p.m. PT. Team McCarville enters this year's tournament as the defending silver medalists after the squad fell 9-6 to Team Canada in the championship final on home ice last year in Thunder Bay. In 2023, McCarville will likely provide fierce competition for Team Jones, as both rinks look to earn one of the pool's three playoff births. The two teams last faced each other at the 2022 GSOC Boost National, which Jones won 7-4. Another rink that has the potential to stand in the way of Jones' title quest is longtime rival Rachel Homan, who recently joined forces with Tracy Fleury at the start of this season. The two led their team to the championship at the 2023 Ontario Scotties in Port Elgin. This week in Kamloops, Team Ontario is the highest-seeded rink in their pool, as Homan looks to win her fourth crown after dropping three of the last four Scotties finals. Rounding out Pool B is Casey Scheidegger (Wild Card 2), Meghan Walter [Abby Ackland] (Wild Card 3). Andrea Kelly (New Brunswick), Kerry Galusha (Northwest Territories), Stacie Curtis (Newfoundland and Labrador), and Hailey Birnie (Yukon). The teams will contest an eight-game round-robin in the pool before the top three rinks advance to the weekend's playoffs. After the round-robin, the second and third-ranked teams in each pool crossover to contest a single elimination playoff round, the winners of which advance to a page-playoff seeding draw against the top two teams. The page playoff kicks off on Saturday afternoon with the 3v4 game at 1:00 p.m. PT, with the winner moving on to face the loser of Saturday night's 1v2 game in the semi-finals (12:00 p.m. Sunday). The winner of Saturday's 1v2 contest, set for 6:00 p.m. Saturday advances directly to the championship final (6:00 p.m. Sunday). The winner of this year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts will represent Canada at the LGT World Women's Curling Championships 2023, in Sandviken, Sweden, March 18-26. At last year's world championships in Prince George, BC, Kerri Einarson led Canada to a bronze medal. Canada last took home gold in 2018, when Jennifer Jones led the nation to a 7-6 victory in the championship final against Team Sweden. Fans in Canada can watch the entire Scotties Tournament of Hearts on TSN, with replays set to be uploaded to Curling Canada's new streaming service Curling Canada Plus. Meanwhile, fans in the USA will be unable to watch this year's Season of Champions on ESPN 3, as was the case in past years. For 2023, American fans will have to rely on Curling Canada Plus replays. For live SCORES, STANDINGS, and STATISTICS, visit www.CurlingZone.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full Scoreboard | Play Fantasy Pick'em! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
-
A quick break for the Memorial Day holiday and we're back with our guest and new USA Curling Womenâs National Team & Juniors Director Jessica Schultz.... (read more) -
I am in week 3 of isolation/quarantine/home schooling and getting a little squirrel-y. Personal hygiene has become optional. The kids have watched the entire... (read more) -
On today's World Curling Report...we recap Day 1 of the 2019 Canada Cup. (read more) -
On this week's podcast we focus on the Canada Cup with past champion Reid Carruthers (04:09), Adam Kingsbury - former coach of Team Homan and Team Jacobs (11:53)... (read more)
-
Host John Cullen travels to Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the Tour Challenge to interview Winnipeg's own Jason Gunnlaugson. Though Gunnlaugson has yet to win a... (read more)