Saskatchewan Junior Female Hockey League returns for a second season
15h ago
The SJFHL has six teams across the province, with 125 players aged 18 to 22.
Three-time defending champion Kerri Einarson has some work to do if she’s to win a fourth straight Scotties Tournament of Hearts title.
Einarson’s Team Canada lost 7-6 to Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones in a Page qualifier Friday, dropping Einarson into the 3-4 Page playoff game Saturday against Nova Scotia’s Christina Black.
Einarson will have to win that game and then Sunday’s semifinal just to get to Sunday night’s final at the Canadian women’s curling championship in Kamloops. Then again, it’s the same route she took to win the title in 2022.
Jones advanced to Saturday’s 1-2 Page playoff game against Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, who beat Black 6-3 in Friday’s other qualifier.
Against Einarson, Jones — who’s going for her record seventh Scotties title — stole four in the second end. Einarson cut the lead to one going into the 10th end, but she couldn’t execute an angle raise takeout with her final stone and Jones had the win.
In the other qualifier, McCarville scored two in the second end, stole one in the third and had the lead the rest of the way. Still, she needed a brilliant raise takeout to score two in the 10th to seal the victory.
In playoff games earlier Friday, Jones defeated B.C.’s Clancy Grandy 9-4 and Black beat Ontario’s Rachel Homan 7-6 in an extra end.
The day began with tiebreakers, with Black posting a 7-6, extra-end victory over the Wild Card #1 team skipped by Kaitlyn Lawes, and Grandy downing Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges 8-3.