Day 7 at the Scotties: Oh, baby! Pregnancy glow shows in B.C. Brown's play at national finale

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Pregnancy definitely agrees with Corryn Brown. At least, it does under the bright lights and on the big stage of the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Under such intense conditions, that says a lot abut the skip from B.C.

“Honestly, I feel fantastic when I’m out on the ice,” said Brown, who’s expecting her first child — with husband and fellow curler Matt Whiteford — in May. “I can’t say the same about when I’m off the ice. It’s amazing how the adrenaline and the atmosphere can really kind of just make you focus on other areas.

“But … no … I’m feeling really good.”

So good, in fact, the 29-year-old talent believes ‘curling for two’ is actually helping her game in Thunder Bay, Ont., where Brown and her B.C. champion rink from Kamloops have qualified for the playoffs at the Scotties.

Having a baby boy onboard and in the hack with her at the Canadian women’s curling championship is, indeed, playing a big role in the success of Brown, third Erin Pincott, second Sarah Koltun, lead Samantha Fisher and alternate Kristen Ryan.

“I think being pregnant at this Scotties has really put things into perspective,” said Brown, in her fourth visit to the national finale. “I think I put a ton of onus on curling and my success or failures in curling would just cause a lot of grief for myself a lot of the times, because curling was kind of be-all, end-all for me.

“But I feel bring pregnant has kind of just given me a bit more perspective that there is more to life than curling. And that I can just really enjoy being here and that I have this opportunity and it’s not kind of the end of the world with whatever happens.”

So she’s playing looser than ever and savouring the moment.

“It just kind of gives you a bit more perspective that there’s a little more out there for me,” continued Brown. “It’s been really cool to kind of have a bit of that realization — there’s a bit of that maturing with it. And it makes the losses not as hard, and you can move on from things a little bit quicker, which I think has shown in that we’ve been able to bounce back after any kind of defeat that we’ve had this week.”

Yes … the week has gone as hoped for the Kamloops Curling Club crew.

Heading into Thursday afternoon’s round-robin wrap-up against Prince Edward Island’s Jane DiCarlo, the two losses Brown (5-2) has suffered were to the teams that have also qualified for playoffs with them out of Pool A — those being Canada’s Rachel Homan (7-0) and Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik (5-2).

And even those were sort-of victories in that the B.C. champs were in them until the end, falling 7-5 and 9-8 respectively.

“There’s no denying that Rachel Holman is number one in the world for a reason,” Brown said. “So they’re obviously going to be huge contenders here, but even when we went out there and played them, we knew that we could contend with them — and we did have a relatively good game against them.

“But we also didn’t play our best, and we still kind of had a crack at it. So we’re really happy with how we’re playing, and we just really had to stay in it here just one game at a time. We couldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Now, though, they can look ahead to playoffs — “goal number one,” said Brown — which begin Friday with the renowned Page system — a pair of 1-v-2 seeding games (1 p.m. ET) and a pair of 3-v-4 elimination games (7 p.m. ET).

Who Brown & Co. play depended on the concluding Pool A games Thursday afternoon and the pivotal wrap-up Pool B matchups Thursday night, which determined the other three playoff teams — Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson (6-2), Nova Scotia’s Christina Black (6-2) and Ontario’s Danielle Inglis (6-2). And that ultimately turned out to slot Brown in third place in Friday night’s elimination game (7 p.m. ET), awaiting the loser of the Canada-Nova Scotia 1-v-2 seeding draw early Friday.

Friday’s winners then move on to Saturday’s action, which consists of four remaining teams in an early 1-v-2 seeding contest (7 p.m. ET) and an evening 3-v-4 elimination draw. (1 p.m. ET)

The semifinal goes early Sunday (1 p.m. ET) followed by the championship final later Sunday (7 p.m. ET).

“I think we’ve proved that we belong here and can compete with the best, for sure,” Brown said. “I think we’ve had a relatively consistent week. There hasn’t been too many high highs and too many low lows. I think we stayed pretty even-keel. So I just think we’ve shown that we deserve to be here and that we can be a contender in this one.

“We have put a ton of work in this season, especially working really closely with our coach, Jim Cotter. He’s instilled a lot of great kind of philosophies and game strategies with us, and then we really just kind of put the work in on and off the ice — and it’s showing here.

“And we worked really hard with our sports psychologist this year, Tracey Bilskey, to work on staying in the moment, rather than getting so far ahead of ourselves in curling,” added Brown. “So it’s really making sure that you’re not doing that.

“I would say this is probably the lightest it’s felt on the team. Honestly, this is probably one of the most enjoyable curling season I’ve ever played.”

With a chance to get even more enjoyable in the next few days on the ice and definitely more fulfilling in a few months off the ice.

EXTRA ENDS

Thursday morning solved nothing in terms of who’s in and who’s out in the Pool B playoff race at the Scotties. The three rinks teams were instead all determined from the evening draw, which saw: Manitoba’s Einarson upend Kaitlyn Lawes (4-4) 9-6 in an all-Manitoba battle; Nova Scotia’s Christina Black knock out Manitoba’s Kate Cameron (4-4) 8-6; and Ontario’s Inglis earn a 9-3 triumph over Northwest Territories (3-5), in veteran skip Kerry Galusha’s final game before retirement … The other night game to close out the round robin was Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brooke Godsland (1-7) earning her first win over Yukon’s Bayly Scoffin (1-7) in an 11-6 decision … Those morning scores were: Manitoba’s Cameron 9-5 over Yukon’s Scoffin; Manitoba’s Einarson with two in an extra end for an 8-6 win over Ontario’s Inglis; NWT’s Galusha with an 8-7 edge of Newfoundland’s Godsland in an extra end; and Nova Scotia’s Black with a steal of one in the 10th end for a pivotal 7-6 decision over Quebec’s Laurie St-George (5-3) … The afternoon draw also saw: Canada’s Homan v. Alberta’s Selena Sturmay (4-3); Alberta’s Skrlik v. Prince Edward Island’s Jane DiCarlo (1-6); and New Brunswick’s Melissa Adams (2-5) v. host Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville (3-4).

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