Playoffs set at Scotties: Einarson, Black, Inglis round out six teams curling for crown

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Danielle Inglis spoiled Kerry Galusha’s farewell night.

But her own party is just beginning, as the Ontario skip makes her first-ever trip to the playoffs at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

A 9-3 win over the Northwest Territories late Thursday ensured that celebration, even though it was supposed to be legend Galusha’s retirement bash after announcing last week the Canadian women’s curling championship would be her last in the competitive team game.

With that decision, Inglis and her Ottawa rink-mates (6-2) became the first team from Pool B to extend their time at the 2025 Scotties in Thunder Bay.

“Feels pretty good — that’s what we came here to do,” said a beaming Inglis moments after the victory in her second visit to the Scotties. “It was about becoming more familiar with the environment, the pressure, the crowds … everything. And just learning.

“We’re a team who really learned through every single thing and that really allowed us to come out firing. We’re just continue to build off what we’ve learned here and take that into playoffs.”

The Ontario champs were joined about 30 minutes later by Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson (6-2) and Nova Scotia’s Christina Black (6-2) after an evening draw that began with playoff hopes still on the table for six of the nine pool teams.

Meanwhile, the Pool A playoff earners are Canada’s Rachel Homan (8-0) — the defending Scotties champ — Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik (6-2) and B.C.’s Corryn Brown (6-2). All three got the job done late Wednesday, with Homan wrapping up an undefeated run through the round robin with her Thursday afternoon 8-4 triumph over Alberta’s Selena Sturmay (4-4).

That gives Homan and her Ottawa Curling Club crew choice of stones and last rock for every game of the playoffs.

“It’s exciting — absolutely — knowing that we now know that we have rocks and hammer kind of in our control is really comforting,” said Homan, who went unbeaten through the 2024

“But we have to play better than even we did (Thursday) to make sure that we’re in the final Sunday.”

It was Black’s bunch and Einarson’s stars playing the best of Pool B combatants Thursday — at least on the scoreboard.

The Nova Scotians sailed through the pressure of needing to win both games on the day by doing just that — 7-6 early over Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges (5-3) to put that province’s playoff hopes on hold — and eventually killing them — and 8-5 late over Manitoba’s Kate Cameron (4-4) late to end last year’s bronze medallist’s time at this winter’s event.

And Einarson had a double-win day, too, topping Inglis early 8-6 and using her last rock in the evening to knock away a stone biting the dot belonging to Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes (4-4) for a count of three in a 9-6 victory.

That clinched first place in Pool B for the four-time Canadian queens — from 2020-23.

HOW DOES THE PLAYOFF SYSTEM WORK?

With the top three teams from each pool determined, it’s onward to Friday’s qualifying round, which remains the same — a Page playoff-type format — from the 2024 Scotties in Calgary:

• The first-place teams of each pool — Canada’s Homan and Manitoba’s Einarson — cross over to play the other pool’s second-place teams — Alberta’s Skrlik and Nova Scotia’s Black — in 1-v-2 seeding games (Homan v. Black, and Einarson v. Skrlik) early Friday (1 p.m. ET)
• The winners of those 1-v-2 seeding games advance to the playoff round Saturday, while the losers drop to the 3-v-4 seeding games later Friday (7 p.m. ET) against the third-place teams in each pool (B.C.’s Brown and Ontario’s Inglis), which are elimination contests
• The winners of those 3-v-4 seeding games then advance to the playoff round (Saturday), which consists of four finalists

HOW DOES A CHAMPION GET CROWNED?

With just four teams remaining, the Page playoff kicks in again Saturday and Sunday:

• The winners of the qualifying round’s 1-v-2 games play each other late Saturday (7 p.m. ET), with the winner advancing straight to Sunday’s late final and the loser advancing to Sunday’s early semifinal
• The winners of the qualifying round’s 3-v-4 games play each other early Saturday (1 p.m. ET), with the winner advancing to Sunday’s early semifinal (1 p.m. ET) and the loser being eliminated
• The semifinal winner then advances to Sunday’s late final (7 p.m. ET), after which the Scotties champion will be crowned

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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