The goal for the NWT at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., according to Kerry Galusha, was to have a good first three days.
Galusha and company have done just that and have put themselves in contention for a playoff spot, one which has eluded the territory for several years.
Galusha and her rink of Sarah Koltun, Margot Flemming, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Megan Koehler and coach Shona Barbour are in the hunt after Wednesday’s action at the Canadian women’s curling championship. They sat alone in second place with a record of four wins and one loss entering their game against Team Canada, skipped by defending champion Kerri Einarson of Manitoba, on Wednesday. That ended in a 8-5 loss — Einarson ran the NWT out of rocks in the 10th end — but it book-ended four straight wins over Ontario, Manitoba, Yukon and Quebec on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, following a loss to Nova Scotia in the Team NWT’s opening contest on Saturday.
The win over Quebec saw the ladies come from behind with three in the 10th end to win 7-6 thanks to a draw from Rizzo, who’s throwing fourth stones for the rink.
Galusha admitted in the post-match press conference that they had a stroke of luck.
“The 10th end didn’t look pretty to get our deuce (to tie),” she said. “We got lucky. We were outplayed most of that game. We just hung in there as a team. I don’t know how we won that game.”
The loss to Einarson was followed by another defeat on Thursday morning to B.C. by a score of 11-6 in a game Galusha described in the post-match press conference as their worst of the week by far.
“We’re not going to win games if we play like that,” she said. “But we have one more game and we’re going to focus on that.”
That final game comes against Alberta on Thursday evening and it is literally do-or-die. A win means Galusha and company would get, at the very least, a tiebreaker. A loss and it’s all over.