THUNDER BAY – The rematch is set.
Kerri Einarson, the four-time Scotties Tournament of Champions, will get a shot at title No. 5, after beating Nova Scotia’s Christina Black 9-8 in Sunday’s semifinal, setting up battle of the titans in the finale against defending champion Rachel Homan.
Einarson made a tricky hit and nudged Nova Scotia’s shot stone just far enough to count one in the final end, the resulting single breaking an 8-8 tie in a game that Einarson never trailed in but couldn’t pull away far enough to keep Black at bay.
It was a little nerve-wracking watching her final stone sailing down the Fort William Gardens ice, begging for it to curl enough to make the hit and pull out the win.
“If we hit what we could see of it I knew it was going to dead stuff there and we were going to roll in for shot rock,” Einarson said.
A measurement was done, but Einarson said she was confident they had it.
“I looked up at the jumbotron and I knew it was us,” she said.
Black said all they could do was battle on, after a slow start, and force Einarson to make a tough shot on her final stone for the win.
“We just kept grinding. We kept just taking our twos when we had our chances. I was like ‘Guys, keep it close, get it tied into the 10th and hopefully make her throw her last shot and we did,” Black said.
“She let (her last shot) go I thought we’ve got a chance. This has to curl. If it had of curled a little more, we win. She would have still rolled out and ours would have rolled in a little further. That’s the way it is. You can’t win every game and you can play a good game and stil lose.”
Getting another shot at Homan is all Einarson could hope for, after losing out to the defending champion from Ottawa in the 1-2 Page playoff a night earlier, doubled up on the scoreboard 10-5.
“It definitely feels good. We definitely have to come out a little sharper in the final. I know Rachel’s team is going to be playing really well and I know can too. We’re saving our best game for last.”
Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Karlee Burgess and lead Krysten Karwicki opened with a deuce in the first end, Black unable to make an angle-double on either of her two shots in the end, leaving a draw to the eight for a pair.
The Manitoba foursome added a steal in the second, Black’s double-tap raise not working out as planned.
They fought back with deuces in three, five, seven and nine, Black making a big hit-and-stick in the ninth to even up the match, surrendering two in the fourth and sixth, but Nova Scotia managed to hold Einarson to one in the eighth, giving them a chance to battle back to even ground.
Nova Scotia was playing with heavy hearts on Sunday, after learning Saturday that the father of second Jennifer Baxter had died unexpectedly.
Thunder Bay’s Karlee Everist, who plays lead for the Nova Scotians, said it was a rough 24 hours.
“We were playing for her and we gave it all we could,” said Everist, who will be on the podium after the gold-medal match accepting her Scotties bronze medal.
“It will be really emotional tonight because we wanted to do it for her and we’ll be thinking about her when we’re up (on the podium).”
The sold-out gold-medal game goes at 7 p.m.
