CHARLOTTETOWN — Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes got back in the win column to cap a roller-coaster run through the triple knockout stage of the HearingLife Tour Challenge to clinch the final playoff spot in the women’s division.
Lawes scored two in the seventh and stole one in the eighth to fend off Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni 5-3 during Friday’s C-qualifiers at the Bell Aliant Centre.
The first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season features triple knockout — with A, B and C Event brackets — where teams must win three games before they lose three to advance to the quarterfinals.
Lawes also earned a 4-3 decision over Tirinzoni on Wednesday to jump out to a 2-0 start in the tournament and had three chances to advance to the playoffs. The team needed all three after losing 7-4 to South Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim during Thursday’s A-qualifiers and 5-4 to Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., earlier Friday in the B-qualifiers.
Both games went down to the wire and Team Lawes continued to hold steady to clinch a playoff berth in a Grand Slam for the first time since last year’s HearingLife Tour Challenge where the club went to the final.
“It feels really good,” Lawes said. “It’s been a little while since we’ve qualified at a Slam. I felt like we were playing really well and even the games we lost we were tied and just unfortunately didn’t have the hammer coming home. I’m really proud of the girls for hanging in there and just battling with these top teams.”
Lawes opened with the hammer but was limited to a single in the second. Pätz was able to peel out Lawes’ rock in the third to score a deuce and take a 2-1 lead.
After Lawes was forced to another single in the fourth, she froze out any chance for Team Tirinzoni to score a multiple count in the sixth as Pätz drew for just one point to make it 3-2.
Lawes tapped for a deuce in the seventh to go up by one and sat a rock just outside the button next to one of Tirinzoni’s stones in the eighth. Team Tirinzoni’s last rock veered off course though, wrecking on guard, and out came the measuring stick that awarded Lawes a stolen point and a sigh of relief.
“We were super patient and we just kept trying to find a way,” Lawes said. “We hung in there, we had a lot of fun on the ice and made some big shots when we needed.”
Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa and Team Eun-jung Kim of South Korea also advanced out of the C-qualifiers.
Fujisawa defeated Team Tabitha Peterson of the United States 8-4 and Kim beat Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller 10-3.
Third Cory Thiesse skipped the American club as Tabitha and her sister Tara Peterson are on maternity leave. Vicky Persinger and Aileen Geving were in the lineup this week at third and second, respectively.
Lawes takes on Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini, Kim faces Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan, Fujisawa plays Gim and Einarson clashes with Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranå in Saturday’s quarterfinals at Noon AT / 11 a.m. ET.
Gim and Constantini qualified undefeated at 3-0 through the A-side Thursday while Homan, Einarson and Wranå advanced through the B brackets earlier Friday.
UP NEXT
The men’s C-qualifiers kick off Saturday’s slate at 8:30 a.m. AT / 7:30 a.m. ET with Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., playing Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin, Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe clashing with Scotland’s Team James Craik and Winnipeg’s Team Matt Dunstone going up against Team John Shuster of the United States.
Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat and Team Ross Whyte plus Team Brad Jacobs of Calgary await the winners with Saskatoon’s Team Mike McEwen against Team Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland set for the late afternoon quarterfinals.
