THUNDER BAY – Nothing like a little Krista McCarville dynamite to pull out a come-from-behind win over a team many see as the heir apparent in Northern Ontario.
McCarville manufactured a three in the eighth end on Thursday night and held on to defeat the team from Sault Ste. Marie, skipped by Ottawa’s Emma Artichuk, 9-6 in front of packed house at Port Arthur Curling Centre.
“It was just a game full of grit,” said Team McCarville second Kendra Lilly.
“It definitely wasn’t the best game for the team all around, but that’s kind of what we do. We just hang in there and then pull through in the end. That’s what we did.”
It was a nailbiter in every sense of the word, a match that saw Artichuk take control early, going up 2-0 with a steal of one in the second, then three one after four.
That’s when things started turning around for the four-time Northern Ontario women’s curling champions from Thunder Bay, a team looking to propel its skip to her 12th Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearance next month at Fort William Gardens.
McCarville praised Artichuk, lead Lauren Rajala, second Jamie Smith and third Megan Smith, for their strategy through the match, forcing her to make tough shots to either avoid giving her opponent big ends or to capitalize any time she had the hammer.
“We knew coming out it was going to be a battle of a game. We had a slow start, but a really good finish.”
Neither McCarville nor Lilly had great explanations about what went right in the decisive eighth end, just that when all the rocks were thrown, they had three more on the scoreboard than they did after Artichuk was forced to a single in the seventh to even the match at four apiece.
“I just felt like things seemed to go our way in the eighth end and we had good draw weight. They had a couple of missed shots, and they didn’t have any of those at the beginning of the game, so we kind of capitalized on those misses and happened to put a nice three on the board.
The win gives McCarville, Lilly, lead Ashely Sippala and third Andrea Kelly a 3-0 start at the Northern Ontario Women’s Curling Championship, while Artichuk suffered her first loss of the week, dropping her record to 2-1, with Thunder Bay’s Ashley Palmer on tap on Friday night.
Palmer dropped her second straight on Thursday evening, falling 9-4 to Thunder Bay’s Robyn Despins, who improved to 2-1, tied for second with Artichuk and Timmins’ Lauren Mann, who downed Thunder Bay’s Claire Dubinsky 8-3 in Draw 7 play.
McCarville said the lesson learned was they need to be sharper from the start.
“We have to lock into draw weight a little bit better. That’s where we struggled and I think every game we’re learning a little bit more.”
Team McCarville is back on the ice on Friday at 9:30 a.m., taking on North Bay’s Lauren Johnston, who has started the event 0-2 with losses to Mann and Despins, who will look for her third win against Dubinsky (0-2).
