It was one of the most dramatic finishes to a provincial Scotties in recent history.

Michelle Englot, Kate Cameron, Leslie Wilson and Raunora Westcott of the Granite Curling Club defeated Darcy Robertson 8-6 in the final of the 2017 Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Eric Coy Arena in Winnipeg.

With tons of rocks in play in that tenth end and the game tied 6-6, Robertson's third Karen Klein made a spectacular triple raise take-out to lay shot rock biting the top of the button.

Kate Cameron followed with a clutch straight back raise take-out to lie shot.

Robertson had two chances to get at that shot rock and steal the win.

The first was an attempt at a double through a narrow port.

The rock made it threw the opening but just failed to make contact with Englot's second shot rock in the four foot and missed everything.

Robertson then tried to slice her own rock that was also in the four-foot but was third shot, onto Englot's shot rock.

That attempt just barely missed as Robertson's rock failed to get by Englot's second shot rock.

Game over.

"Karen made an awesome one," said Cameron of those amazing back-to-back throws. "It was pretty much make-or-miss and we're going to probably lose at that point. We threw a ton of shots in that exact in-turn and my in-turn run-back is probably my favourite shot. I knew what I had to do and I couldn't overthrow that. We needed to make that."

Cameron, Wilson, Westcott and Kristy McDonald lost to Kerri Einarson in the 2016 final in Beausejour.

"It feels so good right now," said Wilson. "Last year was an amazing year and we just didn't finish it. It's great to get it done."

Wilson & Westcott won provincial Scotties titles with Jill Thurston in 2010 and Cathy Overton-Clapham in 2011.

Now they're going back to the national Scotties again.

"It's been a long time," Westcott said. "We've been in a couple of finals and had our hearts broken. This feels awesome. It feels great to be on the other side."

Westcott, Wilson and Cameron were forced to look for a new skip last summer when McDonald wanted to spend more time with her family.

They called Englot, who lives in Regina and has represented Saskatchewan at the National Scotties eight times.

"We knew that we were capable, that's for sure," said Englot. "This could have been a little bit of a building year but with the Olympic Trials being on the line and that was our key focus, we wanted to qualify for that. We knew that we had to build quickly as a team and we've worked really hard at doing that on and off the ice."

Darcy Roberton, Karen Klein, Vanessa Foster and Michelle Madden had an amazing weekend at the provincial Scotties.

The Pembina foursome ended Kerri Einarson's reign as Scotties champion Saturday in a tie-breaker  and defeated reigning Olympic champion Jennifer Jones 8-6 Sunday morning in the semifinals.

"I'm sure it will hit me later on and I'll be disappointed but my team played great all week," said Robertson. "We had a great run. That's all you can do."

The National Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be held from February 18th to the 26th in St. Catherines, Ontario.

 

photos courtesy CurlManitoba