Lawes takeout helps her win Scotties crown

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This article was published 29/01/2024 (701 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MORDEN — Kaitlyn Lawes raised her broom in the air while the crowd erupted at the Access Event Centre in Morden on the shot that ultimately put the Buffalo on her back.

With the score tied 7-7 in the ninth end of Sunday’s Manitoba women’s curling provincial final against Assiniboine’s Beth Peterson, Lawes hit a sensational double takeout to score a pair and put her in the driver’s seat heading into the final frame.

Lawes held Peterson to a single in the 10th to win 9-8 and capture her fifth provincial crown and first as a skip.

As the No. 4-ranked team in the country, Lawes, third Selena Njegovan, second Jocelyn Peterman, and lead Kristin MacCuish — who are in their second year playing together — had a wild card spot to next month’s nationals in Calgary (Feb. 16-25) in their back pocket if they needed it. But they didn’t want to settle for that — they wanted, and earned, the right to wear Manitoba colours on the big stage.

“It’s such an honour to be representing our great province,” said Lawes while holding her 13-month-old daughter Myla. Njegovan and Peterman recently became mothers as well.

“It’s huge. I mean, we’re in a four-year process. We want to have that Olympic win. We want to be Team Canada at the next Olympics. So, to be winning some games this early in our four-year process, it’s great for the confidence. And it’s our first win after having these little ones, so it’s extra special.”

Peterson, No. 13 in the Canadian Team Ranking System, did not have a wild card entry to fall back on. Her hopes of going to nationals all came down to Sunday, making the tightly contested loss even more heartbreaking. Tears rolled down her cheeks while speaking with reporters after the game.

Lawes led 6-3 after five ends but Peterson never backed down and scored a pair in the eighth to keep things interesting heading down the stretch in front of approximately 550 fans.

Peterson punched her ticket to the final with an 8-4 win over Kate Cameron of the Granite Club in Sunday morning’s semifinal.

“It was a really long day, and a really long week with a lot of challenges thrown our way and I just thought we had this one in us, so, I’m pretty devastated,” Peterson said.

“Obviously, the girls did such a good job of keeping us in that game. It was a tough game, and we were down a lot, but there were a lot of really good shots made so I’m really proud of this team.”

It was the first time Peterson — who plays with third Kayla Rocque, second Katherine Doersken, lead Melissa Kurz, and alternate Jenna Loder — had made it to the final day of the event. The 29-year-old from Winnipeg qualified for the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts as Wild Card #3 but is still searching for her first provincial women’s championship.

They battled adversity this week with Peterson and Kurz both making trips to a walk-in clinic for medical issues. They were also smacked 13-1 by Carman’s Shaela Hayward — the under-18 provincial champion — on Wednesday before finding their groove.

“It’s a hard one when teams are already (going to nationals) and they win, and this is your only chance,” said Peterson.

“Yeah, this one is going to sting for a while, but we had a lot of grit in us today and came back and never quit so I’m really proud.”

It was a bittersweet accomplishment for MacCuish as she’s engaged to Kurz’s brother Rob Gordon. Kurz has yet to play at the Canadian Scotties.

MacCuish and Njegovan are now three-time Manitoba champions as they won in 2016 with Kerri Einarson and 2019 with Tracy Fleury.

“They played great all week and I know they work just as hard, too,” said MacCuish. “It’s always hard playing against family, but I’ve done it many times and it just brings up some emotion.”

Gimli’s Kerri Einarson will be in Calgary as the reigning, defending four-time national champion. Curling Canada named St. Vital’s Jennifer Jones, as well as Ontario’s Rachel Homan, as pre-qualifed teams for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts before the season began. Both Jones and Lawes will wear Manitoba jackets, while Einarson will continue to wear the Maple Leaf.

Last year, Team Lawes had to go the wild card route. They went 5-3 at the 2023 nationals in Kamloops before losing a tiebreaker to Nova Scotia’s Christina Black.

“Winning was important. We haven’t won an event all year. So, to win this we can go into Scotties kind of on a high,” said Njegovan.

“I think we can make some noise. We’ve been working so hard all year and we’re just really excited to be going to Calgary as Team Manitoba.”

Curling Canada will confirm the recipients of the two wild card berths on Monday when the rankings are made official from all the provincial playdowns that took place this weekend. It’s unlikely Jolene Campbell, who curls out of the Assiniboine, will get a spot, but early signs indicate Cameron, who went 5-0 in round robin action before bowing out with three straight losses, should get in as the final team.

“It is what it is. It’s out of our control now,” said Cameron earlier in the day. “Whatever happens, happens. We’d be happy for it to go our way, but if it doesn’t, we tried our best this week.”

» Winnipeg Free Press