CALGARY — Rachel Homan let out a deep exhale at WinSport Arena on Tuesday night as she slid down the ice, while fans stood and cheered and clanged cowbells.
“Tired? No,” the Team Ontario skip said, moments later, after her fifth game in four days. “Buzzin’.”
Homan certainly earned that feeling, and it described the feel at the Scotties on Tuesday night in a matchup that featured her Team Ontario against the legendary Team Jones from Manitoba, one you knew was going to be a barn-burner. Not only are these teams ranked 1-2 in the country, not only did they enter the matchup with 4-0 records to lead Pool B, but it could be the last Scotties showdown between these foes since Jones is retiring from women’s curling at the end of this season.
And this game delivered, matching the moment: It came down to the final shot. Team Jones was down 5-7, but had the hammer in the 10th and a chance for a deuce. Homan took her last shot, threading her rock through a pair of guards and executing a double takeout to end the game, taking away Jones’ chance at a deuce to force the extra end.
Then came the deep exhale from Homan.
As well as she and her team have been playing this season — they’ve lost just five games, and have won five titles — the 34-year-old said she wasn’t exactly feeling confident she was going to make that game-winning shot.
“My team sure did,” Homan said, smiling. “I got in the hack, it was a smaller hole than they kind of sold to me. But in those games you just gotta pick a shot and you gotta make a big one when you’re playing against Jen — you gotta make it.”
“All the options were hard,” Team Homan second Emma Miskew said, with a laugh, of the discussions around that final shot. “It was not the easiest draw or play through the hole…But I liked our chances of her throwing it great and us just managing it nicely down the chute.”
“It was a great team shot,” Homan added. “Well-managed on the ice. Great win.”
And the 100th career win for Miskew at the Scotties, to boot.
This one truly could’ve gone the other way, though. In the ninth, Jones was looking at a triple that would have put her team up 8-6, and she needed the double takeout. She got the first, and then leaned back, willing her stone to make contact with that second red Homan rock, but it rolled a hair high.
“I thought I threw a lot of good shots and we just didn’t quite get them to where they needed to be,” Jones said, after her team’s first loss this week. “And even that double in nine, if we just sweep it a little bit different, we make it for three and it’s a different game.”
Certainly more than a few in the crowd were hoping it was. This is, after all, the Last Scotties Ever for the 49-year-old Jones, her last chance to win an incredible seventh title, to become the sole owner of the most championships in the bonspiel’s history, a distinction she shares with the legendary Colleen Jones and with her long-time second, Jill Officer. They’ve all won six.
As always, the Jones supporters are here for the skip who’s won more games at the Scotties than anyone in history. Some of those fans were in a corner wearing sweatshirts with Jones’ name on the back, ringing cowbells, honking small horns, clutching their binoculars to see the far end of the ice on Sheet C. There were more than a few little Manitoba flags waved anytime her Winnipeg-based team made a good shot.
The best signs in the stands were held by Jones’ daughters, Isabella and Skyla. One read “Go Mommy Go,” with lots of sparkles, and the other said “Team Jones is the best.”
Jones’ Team Manitoba is currently in a playoff spot, since the top three in each pool advance, but there’s lots of curling to go still. “Pretty happy generally with the game, but lots we’re going to try to improve for tomorrow,” Jones said.
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In Wednesday’s afternoon draw they’ll face fellow Manitobans, Team Cameron, who are 3-2. Team Homan, meanwhile, squares off against 5-1 Team Grandy of B.C.
So far this season, Team Homan has lost to just one Canadian squad, Team Einarson of Manitoba, who’ve won the last four Scotties titles. (They’re 5-1 in Pool A).
“We feel confident, for sure,” said Homan, a three-time winner at the Scotties, last in 2017.
“It’s been a great week, and we still got a lot of games to go — and a lot of tough teams. There’s no easy games at all at the Scotties, it’s the best field probably that there’s ever been, probably the most top 10 teams ever,” Homan added. “So yeah, we can’t let off the gas right now.”
Homan acknowledged that Tuesday was perhaps the last time she’d play Jones on this stage, and she said she’ll miss games like these.
“It’s going to be weird to not have her at the Scotties, and I mean she’s always such a fierce competitor, and you know that that game’s gonna be on TV and they’ll be promoting it for four months ahead — they’re gonna have to get a new matchup to promote,” Homan said. “She’s just a phenomenal competitor and it’ll definitely be weird to not have her around.”
Then Homan walked back out to the ice, where both she and Jones posed for selfies with fans and signed autographs.
Nearly half an hour after their game ended, WinSport arena was still buzzin’.
