THUNDER BAY, Ont. — As she exited the ice, Kayla Skrlik slowed her walking pace for a second and considered delaying her post-win interview so she could watch the final end of Selena Sturmay’s Team Alberta against Saskatchewan’s Nancy Martin, which was going down to the wire.
“The last few shots will take at least five minutes,” Skrlik decided, so the Team Alberta skip figured she could squeeze in her interview and still catch the final stones of the tenth end on Sheet B.
That game was pretty big for Skrlik and her teammates, third Margo Flemming, her sister and second Ashton Skrlik and lead Geri-Lynn Ramsay. If Saskatchewan beat Sturmay’s Team Alberta, Skrlik’s team would clinch a spot in the Scotties playoffs with their 5-2 record, and still with a game in hand in round robin play.
“It’s been amazing this week,” Skrlik, 27, said of her second Scotties, not knowing whether that playoff berth was hers just yet. “I think our chemistry is great, honestly. All of them work so, so hard, we practice together at least once a week. I could go on and on, but really it’s their work ethic…”
As Skrlik spoke, she could hear rocks hitting and the “oohs” of the crowd at Fort Williams Gardens, with the last shots of the Sturmay-Martin game being thrown.
Skrlik finished her interview, hustled out and opened the black curtain to see the ice just in time. The skip was leaned over a rink-side Pharmasave advertisement while the crowd clapped as Martin’s final rock floated in to score a deuce for the win.
Skrlik grinned and clapped along with the crowd, then joined her playoff-bound teammates at the far end of the ice.
With wins on Wednesday night to move to 5-2 with one game to go in pool play, both Skrlik and B.C.’s Corryn Brown, 29, have qualified for the Scotties playoffs, with only their placings within their pool (second or third) to be determined Thursday after each team’s round robin finale.
“I think we've been doing a really good job of bouncing back, especially after the two losses that we've had,” a grinning Brown said after her Team B.C.’s 9-5 win over New Brunswick. “So I think just not kind of having that slump and then continuing it, we were able to kind of peak again after that.”
Brown’s teammates were on the ice watching the final end of that Sturmay-Martin showdown, and learned they were in, too.
Pool A is now the most clear picture here at the national championship, with Rachel Homan’s world No. 1 Team Canada at the top at 7-0, and Brown and Skrlik jockeying for the second and third positions depending on their final pool games. Team Homan, the defending Scotties champions, punched the first playoff ticket here after moving to 6-0 on Wednesday morning, then earned a convincing 9-3 win over Nunavut in the evening.
“That’s what we came here to do in the round robin, and mission accomplished,” Homan said of making the playoffs. “Now it’s just kind of fine tuning from here.”
While Team Homan’s fate was certain early Wednesday, teams here are so close in the standings that many possibilities exist, depending on wins and losses. Had Sturmay's Team Alberta won Wednesday night, they'd still be in contention. It can be hard to keep up.
“Sometimes I like looking around and seeing what’s going on,” Skrlik said, of staying on top of how other teams are faring, though it's something she only does when she's not in the middle of a tight game herself. “It’s nice to see the big screen at the top [on the jumbotron] so you can watch [other games].”
“In between games we watch curling, because it’s also good to see how the ice is running in between draws, like if it’s changed at all we can kind of get an idea before our late draw, so we do watch,” Brown added. “We also enjoy it, so it’s fun to watch and we have lots of friends in the event as well so it’s nice to keep up to date with them.”
Homan and third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes are the lone perfect team here, and they haven’t been paying much attention to what’s going on outside of their own performance. Homan did know there were three teams battling for those last two spots in her pool, until late Wednesday.
“I don’t think it matters,” she added, of who they’ll play when the field is whittled down to the top six. “I think everyone’s going to bring us their best game, doesn’t really matter who we’re going to play in play-ins. We just need to bring our game.”
While Pool A’s three playoff contenders are set, Pool B is very muddy, still. Team Ontario’s Danielle Inglis leads the pack at 6-1, Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges is at 5-2, and Kerri Einarson’s Team Manitoba, Nova Scotia’s Christina Black and Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes are all at four wins apiece. Thursday will set everything in stone.
Brown’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of Pool B. “It sounds like a gong show over there,” she said, with a laugh.
Then the skip went back onto the ice and joined her teammates for a quick post-game practice, with their Scotties playoff berth officially clinched.
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