Prokopowich punches ticket to playoffs

RIVERS — Lane Prokopowich got the look she wanted, and with all eyes on her, she delivered.

During a week only half the games have gone the distance — with fewer coming down to the last rock — the skip from Dauphin perfectly executed a game-winning double-takeout to qualify for the playoffs at the RME Women of the Rings at Riverdale Community Centre on Friday.

Prokopowich scored three in the 10th end to beat Alyssa Calvert 8-5 and improve to 2-2 with one game to go.

“That’s all you want, really, is just to make a nose hit or a draw to the four-foot for the win,” Prokopowich said. “The way we were all playing and were figuring out the ice, we knew we were confident in either or.”

Prokopowich was back in action against Hailey McFarlane (0-4) in Friday’s late draw, which ended after deadline. Even with a loss, she would finish ahead of the winner of Calvert (1-3) and Darcy Robertson (1-3) based on head-to-head results.

Prokopowich will play an elimination game today at 2:30 p.m., with her opponent to be determined during today’s 10 a.m. draw.

It wasn’t looking so great after two games, though. Prokopowich was 0-2 but battled No. 2 seed Kate Cameron down to the last end in their opener.

The team bounced back to beat Robertson 8-3, then endured one of the tightest battles of the week to drop a Calvert team that also pushed Cameron to the brink.

“That’s all we could have wanted, to have a close game with the top seed. We had some confidence under us,” Prokopowich said, adding that it made a difference.

“We were just looking to improve from our record last year, which we did already … I’m super proud of my team. I’m really proud of the way we’re doing, and hopefully we can move on.”

Prokopowich and her teammates, third Mikaylah Lyburn, second Caitlin Kostna and lead Stephanie Feeleus, are facing new challenges now with three of them working full time and Lyburn completing her education degree.

Prokopowich graduated from the University of Manitoba last year and is adjusting to the corporate world, working in human resources, but said the team has still been working hard, especially lately, to prepare for this week.

And they have the added benefit of coach William Lyburn feeding them tips throughout the game. Thanks to a new rule for this season, coaches can interact more than just during their lone 90-second timeout.

“It’s super new, and we’re going to take advantage of the new rule. It’s a nice refresher if we need,” Prokopowich said. “It’s good to let us know what we did wrong, but he also tells us what we did right and reinforces it more.”

Friday’s game started with more mistakes than either side would like, but they traded errors and ultimately blanked the first two ends.

The third end was the first with a bunch of rocks in play, and most of them were behind the T-line. Prokopowich had one shot stone with plenty of backing and added another at the top of the eight-foot. When Calvert jammed on a takeout, Prokopowich took advantage and made an open draw to lead 3-0.

Calvert settled for one in the fourth, but made it tough on Prokopowich in the fifth, with two rocks in the four-foot. The Dauphinite placed another on the lid, then nearly made her takeout for two but led 4-1 at the break.

Calvert was in trouble in the sixth, facing three, but got out of it. Irwin nailed a raise takeout, then Calvert nearly made a raise double-takeout, nudging the Prokopowich stone just far enough to sit one. When Prokopowich missed a corner freeze attempt, Calvert made the open hit for two.

Prokopowich had to make a hit against four in the seventh, but stuck it to take a point and lead 5-3.

Calvert set herself up nicely in the eighth, splitting the house well to leave a routine hit for her deuce to tie it up.

It looked like Calvert was in great shape to steal or force in the ninth before Lyburn hit a raise takeout and Prokopowich made a double to clear the rings and blank it to keep the hammer coming home.

Again, Lyburn helped clear the path for Prokopowich to deliver.

“She’s a rockstar. We have her in that position for a reason. She’s good at the cleanup work, and she gets really excited about throwing those,” Prokopowich said.

“I’m pretty confident she’ll make them, so I just feel good putting the broom down, knowing she’ll hit it and we’re pretty much set.”

• • •

Cameron and Peterson led the group at 4-0 and played each other late Friday for the top spot in the group.

In the afternoon, Cameron put together her second dominant effort of the week to blank McFarlane 11-0 in just five ends.

Her only mistake of any significance was spilling her shooter in the first end to settle for two points.

But she loaded up four protected rocks in the second end and stole four to break it open.

Cameron (4-0) stole singles in the next two ends, then three in the fifth, leading to early handshakes.

She was back in action against Beth Peterson (4-0) for first in the group late Friday.

Peterson stole her way to a 5-4 win over Robertson.

Peterson stole one in the first, then more singles in the fourth and fifth to lead 4-1. She forced Robertson to hit against four in the sixth.

While Peterson never scored more than one at a time, she didn’t give up anything easy, and that was enough.

• • •

Kaitlyn Lawes survived a shaky stretch to knock off Lisa McLeod 8-5 to complete Group A play at a perfect 5-0.

They traded forced singles for the first three ends, then Lawes missed a raise takeout to give McLeod (3-2) an easy draw for two in the fourth.

Lawes blanked the fifth and then had a chance to set up a deuce in the sixth but missed long on her first draw and again on her second to give up a steal of one and put McLeod up 4-2.

Lawes made her move soon after, though, sitting four with McLeod up to throw. The skip blasted two of them out but still gave up an easy three.

Lawes stacked three stones in tight behind a centre guard, which McLeod was unable to run back on her first shot. She tried a tough angle-raise with her last but gave up a steal of two, making it 7-4 Lawes with two ends to go.

McLeod erred on an easy draw for one in the ninth, putting the game out of reach.

The loss nearly knocked McLeod out, but she survived a three-way tie as the No. 3 seed with the last stone draw tiebreaker.

Before each game, the teams throw two draws to the button, adding up the distance from the pin for all but their worst of 10 attempts of the week.

Kristy Watling (3-2) jumped all the way to second place following her 10-7 victory over Sarah-Jane Sass (3-2), as the second-best team in the group and third in the whole event on the last stone draws.

“We put so much emphasis on draw to the button this year and that’s been a big key to a lot of our practices, so we’re going out there every game going to pin it,” Watling said. “We’re more than thrilled with our results.”

Watling had only scored singles through four ends when she took complete control. Following a few Sass misses, the lefty stole five to race ahead 8-2.

“My team put it in great positions, some nice soft weight shots setting the end up nice, putting the pressure on them and forcing the miss,” Watling said, adding she knew the game wasn’t over yet.

“We knew this was a very aggressive team. They’re going to go after us, they’re going to start putting rocks in play,” she said.

“We just gotta keep playing our game, trying to limit the amount of points they’re going to get. They’re obviously eventually going to score, but trying to limit them to one, two at most.”

She gave up one point, then a steal of two to keep it interesting, but scored one in the eighth to lead 9-5.

Sass added another deuce in the ninth, but needing to steal two to stay alive, she was unable to clear the mess of Watling rocks in the rings.

In the other game, Rachel Kaatz (1-4) picked up her first win of the weekend, 9-2 over Cheyenne Ehnes (0-5).

Six teams remain, and three will advance to Sunday, with the semifinal set for 9:30 a.m., and the final at 2:30 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com