THUNDER BAY – Krista McCarvlle is back in familiar territory.
The Thunder Bay skip, seeking a little retribution for a round-robin loss that cost her an automatic berth in Sunday Northern Ontario Women’s Curling Championship final, rolled over Robyn Despins 9-4, setting up a an afternoon duel with Sudbury-based Emma Artichuk.
McCarville, who needed a miraculous finish on Saturday night just to make the semifinal, scoring four in the 10th end to edge Laura Mann 9-8, rolled over Despins in the semifinal, setting the pace with three in the second end.
She added a pair in the fifth and three more in the sixth to put the match all but out of reach.
McCarville has been in every Northern Ontario final since 2016 and is seeking to make a 12th Scotties appearance.
“We’re really excited. This is where we want to be and this is what we practiced for all season, to be in this final, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position,” McCarville said.
Artichuk who finished in a three-way tie for top spot at 5-1 with McCarville and Despins, earned first place and the bye because of their results in the week-long draw-to-the-button competition prior to each game.
McCarville, lead Sarah Potts, second Ashley Sippala, third Andrea Kelly and alternate Kendra Lilly defeated Atrichuk 9-6 in the round robin, but that means nothing at this point, with one match between both teams and next month’s Scotties.
“It’s the final and everyone’s going to bring their ‘A’ game, so we have to play our best,” McCarville said.
The goal against Despins was to come out strong, Potts said, build off Saturday night’s momentum.
“We didn’t want to just rely on winning yesterday to get us through this one and that’s a really strong team,” Potts said. “Obviously they beat us in the round robin. We knew we’d have to play well, and we came out pretty good.”
After blanking the opening end, they capitalized on mistakes by the Despins front end that led to three McCarville stones finding the rings. Despins made a double on her first, but was wide on her second, and McCarville made her three.
Despins was forced to a single in the third, giving back hammer and McCarville made it count, drawing to the four-foot for a pair after Despins flashed on her final stone.
Up 5-2 in the sixth, McCarville played a raise onto a Despins stone in the front four and bit the 12, giving the defending champs another three-ender and an 8-2 lead.
McCarville had a chance to put it away in the eighth, with what appeared to be an open hit for three, but jammed and gave up a steal of one. It was academic from there, however, Team McCarville putting it away with a single in the ninth.
The final goes at 1:30 p.m. at the Port Arthur Curling Centre.
In the men’s semifinal, Dylan Johnston overcame a bumpy beginning, giving up a deuce in the second and a steal of one in the third, to defeat Sault Ste. Marie’s Sandy MacEwan . 9-5.
They’ll play John Epping of Sudbury in the final.
Johnston turned the game around in the fifth, stealing a pair to go up 4-3, then held MacEwan to one in the sixth before adding two more in the seventh to go up 6-4. MacEwan was limited to one in the eighth and Johnston, who was also a finalist in 2017, losing to Brad Jacobs, put it away in the ninth.
Eight years later, it feels great, he said.
“It’s been a long time. We knew if we just played our game today and grinded it out, hopefully we’d get another shot at Epping,” Johnston said.
“We struggled the first half the game, kind of, and we got a good mistake from Sandy in the fifth end to steal two.”
Johnston said the lesson learned against Epping in the round robin, their lone loss of the week, was not to put too many rocks in play.
The men’s final goes at 5:30 p.m.
