THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Rachel Homan and her Team Canada won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Sunday to become the first team in history to go undefeated in back-to-back years at the national championship.
The world No. 1 skipper curled an incredible 100 per cent in her team’s winning effort.
The 6-1 win over Kerri Einarson’s Team Manitoba in front of a sold-out crowd at Fort William Gardens is Team Homan’s 22nd straight victory at the national championship.
The Scotties title is a fifth for Homan and Emma Miskew, a third for lead Sarah Wilkes and a second for Tracy Fleury.
With the win, Team Homan gets to represent Canada at the world championship next month in South Korea, where they’ll try to defend the title they won a year ago.
The 35-year-old Homan came out firing on championship Sunday, and didn’t let Team Manitoba get much of anything cooking. After Canada got out to an early 1-0 lead, it looked like Manitoba set itself up for a deuce in the third, but Homan made back-to-back double takeouts — the second, a rocket she sent down the ice that narrowly hit one rock on its outside edge to send it careening into another. In the fourth end, Homan again nailed a double takeout to hold Manitoba to a single.
In the fifth, Fleury make a double takeout on the button to give Team Canada shot stone. Einarson took it out to sit two for Manitoba, forcing Homan to take a single and a 2-1 lead into the break.
The Team Canada skipper was perfect in the first half, but Einarson wasn’t far behind at 93 per cent. It was low-scoring, clinical, precise stuff.
But in seven and eight, Manitoba gave up three stolen points. Einarson floated her last shot in eight well short to give Canada a steal of two and a commanding 5-1 lead.
In nine, Einarson missed a double and shortly after the teams shook hands.
The Scotties is the sixth title win for Team Homan this season — the squad has played eight events in all, and come second twice.
