Kerry Galusha and Team NWT are going where no women’s curling rink from the territory has ever gone before.
Galusha and her rink of Sarah Koltun, Margot Flemming, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Megan Koehler and coach Shona Barbour are officially in the playoffs at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., after beating Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias by a score of 8-6 in the tiebreaker. Team NWT ran Zacharias out of rocks in the 10th end to secure the win and become the first team from the North to qualify.
Galusha started with the hammer and blanked the opening end but put up three in the second end to draw first blood. Zacharias answered with a single in the third before Galusha scoring two more with the hammer in the fourth to take a 5-1 lead. Zacharias scored a single in the fifth and stole another to cut the deficit to 5-3. The seventh end was blanked but the big blow came in the eighth as Galusha put up three to extend her lead to 8-3. Zacharias replied with three of her own in the ninth to make it 8-6 but Galusha was able to seal it in the 10th end.
Galusha and company have a grand total of an hour to celebrate as they will take on New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford in the first round of the playoffs.
This story will be updated.