CurlingZone: Galusha picks up another win, moves to 3-1 at Scotties in Kamloops

On Monday morning at the Scotties, Kerry Galusha (Photo: Curling Canada) defeated Newfoundland and Labrador by a score of 14-8 in Draw 7 to improve their record to 3-1.

By: Dylan Chenier

Kerry Galusha and Team Northwest Territories (NWT) are on a roll at the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. After suffering their first loss to Wild Card 3 on Sunday, Galusha's rink picked up an impressive 14-8 victory over Team Newfoundland (Curtis) on Monday morning.

After forcing the Curtis rink to one in the first, Team NWT- with third Jo-Ann Rizzo throwing fourth stones, second Sarah Koulton, and lead Magot Flemming- scored a deuce in the second end to take the lead for the first time. Newfoundland would answer right back in the third end with two points of their own, putting Curtis up 3-2.

Galusha's rink retook the lead in the fourth end after Rizzo was left with a tight but makable draw on her last shot to score three. Team NWT would steal one more in the fifth to lead 6-3 heading into the break.

Coming back in the sixth, Curtis showed she wasn't ready to give up without a fight, as the skip from St. John's scored three points to tie the game at 6-6. However, Glashua wasn't interested in keeping things tied for long, as the rink picked up a score of four in the seventh end, to lead 10-6.

Down by four with just three ends remaining, Curtis was able to put two points on the board in the eighth, cutting Galshua's lead to two. While Team Newfoundland made some important strides throughout the second half of Monday's draw, Team NWT put things away in the ninth end with another score of four, taking the win 14-8.

With the victory, Team Galusha now moves into sole possession of first place in Pool B, however, the rink has one game in hand over their nearest opponents Team Homan. Team Galusha has the rest of Monday off in Kamloops, with their next draw set for Tuesday morning at 8:30 AM PT, against Jennifer Jones and Team Manitoba.

Galusha and Jones have faced each other a number of times throughout their curling careers, with Jones leading their head-to-head record with 12 wins to Galusha's 2. When the two skips last met, it was Team Jones taking the victory 8-3 at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard in 2021.

At this year's Scotties in Kamloops, Galusha's team has earned a significant amount of media attention with their impressive start to the tournament. While there are still many more games to be played in the days ahead, if Galusha's team can find a way to maintain their winning record, they will likely be in contention for a playoff spot later in the week.

With 18 teams in their year's field, Scotties organizers split the event into two pools of nine teams each. At the end of the round-robin, the top three teams in each pool will advance to the playoffs, with the best-ranked team in each pool receiving a bye through the first round.

With a 3-1 record, Galusha is sitting comfortably after completing the first half of her draw. However, with games against the likes of Jennifer Jones and Krista McCarville still to come, the team will be looking to maintain a winning record as they hope to make this year's playoffs.

After 19 appearances at the national championships, Kerry Galusha finally made the playoffs for the first time at last year's Scotties in Thunder Bay, where she lost 8-6 to New Brunswick's Andrea Crawford in a Championship Pool semifinal. At her 20th Scotties this week in Kamloops, Galusha will be looking to build on the success from last year as she aims to go even further in the playoffs.

So far this season, Team Galusha has enjoyed some strong results on tour, with the rink advancing to the playoffs on multiple occasions, including a third-place finish at the Hearing Life Tour Challenge Tier Two event in Grande Prairie. At the 2022 Stu Sells Brantford Nissan Classic, Team Galusha finished in fifth place.

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.

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