THUNDER BAY -- The 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated for Feb. 14-23 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont. Eighteen women’s teams will compete in the national curling championship.
Meet the teams:
Pre-Qualifier 2 – Team Manitoba – Lawes
Team Kaitlyn Lawes took an alternate route to the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, named as one of three Pre-Qualifying teams after competing as Manitoba champion in 2024.
Lawes gave birth to her second daughter, Ella, in November, missing a portion of the current season. She began the 2024-25 campaign playing in three events before stepping away in her 37th week of pregnancy.
Team spare Becca Hebert (a former Canadian Junior women’s champion with then skip Jocelyn Peterman) filled in at lead with Selena Njegovan moving from her usual vice-skip position to skip. Peterman, at second, and Kristin Gordon, at lead, round out the team. Hebert remains the team’s alternate.
Having pre-qualified, like Kerri Einarson, makes it easier, said Lawes, who is a Scotties Tournament of Hearts and World champion – with Jennifer Jones – and a two-time Olympic gold medallist.
“In the past you would have thought that getting a chance to play in provincials would be a huge advantage in that, if you win, you have that huge momentum going in. But when you look at the (Scotties) playoffs the last few years and who’s been in the finals, the team’s that have had that bye have been in those spots,” said Lawes.
It’s been an up-and-down campaign for Team Lawes, building up a 24-23 record, but the team has reached four semi-finals in the 2024-25 campaign, including its first three events and four of the first five.
The team brings plenty of experience in the form of what will be 11 Scotties appearances for Lawes, including a title in 2015 with Jones at skip; two silvers; and three bronze medals at the national championship.
Lawes also has two Olympic gold medals to her name, one with Team Jones in 2014 and the other in mixed doubles with John Morris in 2018. Lawes also has a gold medal from the 2018 World Championship as she returned from the Olympics to rejoin Jones. Lawes is also a silver and bronze medallist from the World Juniors in 2009 and 2008, respectively.
Njegovan will compete in her 10th Scotties, although in 2023 she was on the bench on parental leave. Her best finishes nationally were silver medals at both the 2018 Scotties with skip Kerri Einarson and the 2021 Canadian Curling Trials with skip Tracy Fleury.
Gordon was a teammate of Njegovan’s on both those runner-up teams and this will be her ninth trip to the Scotties, where she also won silver as an alternate with Jennifer Jones in 2013.
This will be Scotties No. 9 for Peterman, having won the event playing out of Alberta in 2016 with Chelsea Carey and she has two bronze medals from nationals in 2017 (again with Carey, only as Team Canada) and 2019 (with Jones and Lawes as Team Wild Card). In 2017 Peterman was also a runner-up with Team Carey at the Canadian Curling Trials.
Peterman is a two-time Canadian mixed doubles champion (2016 and 2019) with her husband Brett Gallant, winning silver at Worlds in 2019. She also captured gold with Gallant at the recent Canadian Mixed Doubles Trials event. Peterman also claimed gold at the 2021 Canadian Curling Trials with Jones and Lawes, advancing to the 2022 Winter Olympics, where they did not qualify for medals.
The team is coached by Connor Njegovan.
Team Northwest Territories
After an opening scare at the Territorial playdown, Team Kerry Galusha roared back with vengeance as the veteran skip earned her remarkable 18th official appearance (and 22nd overall) at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
With a revamped team consisting of third Megan Koehler, daughter Sydney Galusha at vice-skip/second, Shona Barbour at lead and alternate Ella Skauge, Team Galusha bounced back from an opening 11-6 loss to a young Team Betti Delorey.
Galusha, now 47, bounced back with definitive 11-6, 11-4 and 12-0 wins to earn the 2025 Territorial title.
The Northwest Territories skip will now be just three appearances behind all-time Scotties leader Colleen Jones’s impeccable 21 trips to nationals. Galusha’s attempt at keeping up with the Jones girls continues to be on an upward trajectory as she now sits tied for second in all-time Scotties’ appearances with Jennifer Jones.
Galusha, who also competed in two pre-qualifying rounds at the Scotties (which do not officially count), disbanded her 2024 team of last-rock thrower Jo-Ann Rizzo, third Margot Flemming and second Sarah Koltun. Galusha called the games and threw lead rocks.
Barbour was the alternate on that team, her fourth time as a spare at the Scotties. Barbour began playing with Galusha back in junior play and will appear in her ninth official Scotties.
Kohler has competed in five Scotties and was an alternate in two others, while Sydney Galusha and Ella Skauge travel to their first national women’s championship after both competing in the New Holland Canadian Junior Championship in 2024. Sydney is just 15 and Ella is 16 and both will also be competing in the 2025 New Holland U20 championship in March.
Team Ontario
Steals of two in the third end and singles in the sixth and ninth led Team Danielle Inglis to a second-straight Ontario women’s crown as the Ottawa-based rink defeated Team Chelsea Brandwood 8-4 to advance to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
“We did it!!” tweeted Team Inglis. “After an exciting week of curling, we are thrilled to have defended our title and have the opportunity to return to the Scotties as Team Ontario.”
Inglis’s Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club rink remains the same as 2024, with teammates Kira Brunton at vice-skip, second Calissa Daly and lead Cassandra de Groot.
At provincials, Team Inglis rebounded from its only loss, dropping a 7-6 decision to Hollie Duncan in Game 1 of the 12-team qualifying tournament before rattling off six-straight wins.
This will be Inglis’s fourth appearance at the Scotties with her first two as alternates for Team Hollie Duncan in 2018 and Team Rachel Homan in 2021, the latter earning a silver medal. Last year the team finished 3-5 in Pool B play at the Scotties in Calgary.
As a junior, Inglis defeated Homan in 2008 to win the Ontario title. Inglis was also the vice-skip on Mike Anderson’s 2018 World Mixed Curling Championship team that earned gold.
Brunton was the alternate for Krysta Burns’ Northern Ontario team at the 2021 Scotties and Homan’s 2023 Scotties team. She also claimed a gold medal as vice-skip for Megan Smith at the 2015 Canada Winter Games; topped the field as skip at the 2017 Canadian U-18 Curling Championship; and won the 2019 U SPORTS crown representing Laurentian University.
Daly competed in the 2019 New Holland Canadian U-21 Championships for Ontario and won gold with Northern Ontario’s Jacob Horgan in the mixed doubles portion of the competition and represented Queen’s University in curling.
De Groot has teamed up with Inglis for the last 11 seasons and they did compete at the 2021 Canadian Pre-Trials and de Groot was a runner-up at the 2018 Ontario Scotties.
Kimberly Tuck is the alternate, attending her third Scotties and Steve Acorn is the team coach.
Team Newfoundland and Labrador
Brooke Godsland bounced back from a disappointing 13-5 loss to Stacie Curtis one year ago to earn her first trip to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 2025.
Godsland, with Erin Porter at vice-skip, Sarah McNeil Lamswood at second and lead Camille Burt, pounced on Team Carrie Vautour early for a 7-2 lead after five ends before finishing off their St. John’s opponent 10-4 in eight ends to claim the provincial crown.
Godsland posted on her Facebook account. “I am beyond excited to represent NL at the 2025 Scotties in Thunder Bay! I couldn’t have asked for a better group of ladies to be going with.”
While Godsland heads to her first Scotties, along with fellow Scotties rookie McNeil Lamswood, Porter has plenty of experience at the Scotties as this will be her sixth appearance. The last one came in 2020 while playing for Erica Curtis. Her other trips were as vice-skip for Stacie Curtis in 2016-18 and as third for Stacie Devereaux in 2013.
This will be Burt’s third-straight trip to the national championship, having previously played lead for Stacie Curtis, including last season before moving over to Team Godsland.
Godsland is a two-time provincial junior champion from 2016 and 2017. Burt also claimed two provincial junior championships in 2018 and 2019 as lead for Mackenzie Glynn.
The team is coached by Cory Schuh and Kate Paterson is the alternate.
Team Alberta – Skrlik
Team Kayla Skrlik will make its second trip to the big Scotties Tournament of Hearts show after claiming a real knock-em-down, drag-em-out affair over Nicky Kaufman in the Alberta provincial championship.
Kaufman recorded a deuce in the seventh end and stole one in the eighth before Skrlik blanked the ninth and delivered a takeout for the winning point for a 6-5 win in the 10th end. In her first provincial final, in 2023 Skrlik out-lasted Team Casey Scheidegger 9-8 in a thrilling championship game in which she made an incredibly tough thin double, just skirting her own guard, and then stuck around for two in the tense 10th end.
“I’ve curled the last three provincial finals, it’s always come down to the last shot. It’s something that I enjoy doing. I’ve done it for a long time now. To win it on a made shot is great,” Skrlik told media after the 2025 win.
Skrlik with third Margot Flemming, her sister Ashton Skrlik at second, lead Geri-Lynn Ramsay (who holds the broom for the skip’s rocks) and alternate Crystal Rumberg are based out of the Garrison Curling Club in Calgary.
Skrlik, with Brittany Tran at vice-skip, finished 4-4 at the 2023 Scotties in Kamloops, B.C. It will be the second trip to nationals for the Skrlik sisters while Ramsay makes her third appearance.
Flemming, who joined the team this season after Kerry Galusha’s Northwest Territories team disbanded, will make her fifth trip to the Scotties.
This will be Rumberg’s fourth appearance at the Scotties and Team Skrlik is coached by Shannon Kleibrink.
Tickets for the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts can be purchased at https://www.curling.ca/2025scotties/tickets/
