Four Teams Leading
Posted at 12:40 am on February 18, 2013
After two days of competition at the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, we have a four-way tie for first place. Heather Nedohin (Team Canada), Jennifer Jones (Manitoba), Rachel Homan (Ontario) and Jill Shumay (Saskatchewan) are all sitting atop the leader board with three wins and no losses.
Jennifer Jones and Team Manitoba started day two with a tough match up against former Scotties Champion, British Columbia’s Kelly Scott. After trading single points early in the game, Jones cracked the game open by scoring a deuce in the third end. After Kelly Scott could only manage another one-pointer in the next end, Jones took full advantage of the hammer and posted a big three points to take a commanding 5-2 lead in the fifth-end break.
Again, Jones effectively held the British Colombians to single points in their hammer ends, preventing Scott from chipping away at the lead. Manitoba managed to come away with two more deuces before the game mercifully ended with a 10-4 final. This incredible display by Jones featured an almost-perfect hammer conversion, posting multiple-points 80% of the time with the hammer. They carried this momentum into their next game, squaring off with Newfoundland & Labrador. Manitoba dominated the match, downing Devereaux with a score of 9-1.
Rachel Homan and her rink from Ontario started day two with a big win over Team Alberta. Skipped by Kristie Moore, the Alberta team was heading into this tournament with high expectations Alberta traditionally fares well at the Scotties, but this year they’ve gotten off to a slow start.
Moore stumbled out of the gate again in this game. Starting the game with the hammer, they only managed a single point. Homan blasted back in the very next end with 3 points to take the lead. The next time Homan got the hammer, the young skip posted another big 3 points to blow the game open. They never looked back, cruising their way to a 9-5 victory. Ontario rounded off their day with another win against the Northwest Territories, winning 9-2.
Jill Shumay and Heather Nedohin also posted wins today to maintain their perfect record. Biting at the heals of the leaders are British Columbia and Quebec, both with 2-1 records. Alberta (0-3), Nova Scotia (0-3), and Newfoundland (0-4) are all heading in to day three looking for their first win.