Shortly after Kerri Einarson lost the 1-1 page playoff game to Jennifer Jones on Saturday night in front of a packed house at the Winkler Arena – the East St. Paul skip said she wanted another chance to play the reigning Olympic champions again at the 2015 Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts – and she wanted it real bad.

That rematch is going to happen at 4 p.m.

Einarson, Selena Kaatz, Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish rebounded from that 9-6 loss to Jones by defeating Barb Spencer 5-3 in the semifinal on Sunday afternoon.

“I'm really looking forward to it,” said Einarson of her rematch with Jones. “I know we have to pick it up that's for sure. We did not play our best game. We did make our shots when we needed to. We got a few lucky breaks our way in that game.”

Those lucky breaks - two missed draws in the last two ends by Spencer cost her team dearly.

The first was in the ninth when the Assiniboine Memorial skip was light trying to draw to the full four-foot and gave up a steal of two.

That gave Einarson a 5-3 lead coming home.

The second was a draw to the rings to split the house and lay two which in all likelihood should be enough to force and extra end with just two rocks left.

But that rock never made it to the rings.

“Very surprised,” said Einarson when asked about Spencer's draw attempt in the 10th end. “She just got it going a bit and it caught the curl too early. It was a big relief for me. I thought she was going to make that draw all day. She always does.”

“It seemed like in the last two ends the ice really started to breakdown and my rocks were just cutting,” explained Spencer. “In the very last end every single draw that we threw over-curled by three or four feet. Then my last draw I thought I was good when I let it go and it just really curled.”

One more game and Einarson says she's very happy her team got a chance to get a feel for the ice before facing Jones.

“It's nice to be on the ice instead of resting, laying around all day, and out just practicing. It's nice to just keep playing.”


photo by Connie Laliberte