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Englot steals win in last end to improve to 2-0

Jan 5, 2017 | 10:07 AM

Michelle Englot, the skip for team Englot who is originally from Saskatchewan, got her Winnipeg-based rink a huge 6-5 win over team Meilleur on Thursday morning to improve to 2-0 at the Canadian Meridian Open.

Englot will stay in the ‘A’ bracket along with Valerie Sweeting, who also came away with a narrow win in the sixth draw of the tournament, 6-5 in an extra end over China’s Bingyu Wang.

“We had a really solid game yesterday and then dug deep today and managed to come out with the win [today],” Englot said, who was down 5-3 heading into the seventh end but battled back to win. “This team has a lot of resiliency and we don’t give up in games so it’s just really good to play with them because you know they’re never going to get down so we battle back in every game we can.”

This is just the second Grand Slam event so far for the rink made up of Englot, Kate Cameron, Leslie Wilson-Westcott, and Raunora Westcott. They made the finals at the Tour Challenge in Cranbrook, B.C., in Novemeber, but fell to Team Sweeting.

Englot said that curling in her home province, even though she isn’t technically representing them, is still nice.

“It’s been a little different but it still has a hometown feel,” Englot said. “I have lots of fans here and I have lots of support in the province still so it’s a really good feeling.”

Sweeting meanwhile, needed an extra end to take down Team Wang. She was trailing 5-3 heading into the eighth, but had the hammer coming home and was able to tie the game up by snagging two points.

Then, in the extra end, Wang had an opportunity to get the win with the final rock, but her attempt slide a little bit too far off the button, giving Sweeting the steal and the win.

“Her last one was a pretty tough shot but she was really close. I thought she had it made,” Sweeting said. “She did have to move [our rock] off the button but she just rolled a little bit too far.

“It was a good game. It was a good battle and we came back so we did all that we could. We left her a really hard shot and sometimes they make them, sometimes they don’t.”

Not to be undone when it comes to a perfect record is Jacqueline Harrison from Mississauga, Ont., who defeated Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton 6-4 to join Englot and Sweeting in the ‘A’ bracket.

“Overall I think it was sort of the same approach [as yesterday],” Harrison said. “We played our game and we just wanted to make all of our shots and make their shots as difficult as possible.

“We’re looking forward to our next game and hopefully we can keep our momentum going.”

Harrison will now face Sweeting with a playoff spot on the line, while Englot faces off against Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland who has also started 2-0.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jones avoided a second straight loss, making a statement with an 8-3 win over Chelsea Carey of Calgary.

Jones will stay in the ‘B’ bracket thanks to a 1-1 record and will face off against Kerri Einarson.

“I missed a couple of shots late [yesterday] to lose that game so I thought it was just a more consistent performance today,” Jones said. “You want to always make more shots heading into the weekend. Ideally we want to just qualify and take it from there.”

Team Carey now drops down to the ‘C’ bracket with a do-or-die game against Tracey Fleury. That game will go at 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening.

In the all-international matchup on Thursday, Anna Hasselborg of Sweden triumphed 7-5 over Anna Sidorova of Russia to improve to 1-1 and stay in the ‘B’ bracket. Sidorova, meanwhile, drops to the ‘C’ bracket. Both Hasselborg’s and Sidorova’s opponents are unclear at the moment, but they will both play Friday morning at  8 a.m.

 

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11