Music: {allcanada} NOVA SCOTIA HANDS SASKATCHEWAN FIRST LOSS AT SCOTTIES

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

{allcanada} NOVA SCOTIA HANDS SASKATCHEWAN FIRST LOSS AT SCOTTIES

CHARLOTTETOWN -- Mental fatigue caught up to Amber Holland's Saskatchewan team as they suffered their first loss of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, falling 7-4 to Nova Scotia's Heather Smith-Dacey on Wednesday.

Playing their fourth game in a row and operating on limited sleep because they'd played the previous evening and again in the morning draw, the Kronau Curling Club struggled to read the ice versus Nova Scotia.

Saskatchewan gave up steals of two points to Smith Dacey in the fourth and eighth ends. They looked forward to having an evening off.

"The ice is ... different every time we go out there," Holland said. "You really just have to pay attention to what you're doing out there.

"This was our fourth in a row. It's nice to come out of that even 3-1. It's a tough schedule when you're back to back to back to back and not a lot of time to recover. I think we'll be pleased we came out of that 3-1."

The top four teams at the round robin's conclusion Thursday advance to the Page playoffs and ties for fourth will be solved by tiebreaker games Friday.

The top two seeds meet Friday with the winner earning a berth in Sunday's final. The loser drops to Saturday's semifinal to meet the winner of the day's earlier playoff between the third and fourth seeds.

At 8-1, Saskatchewan didn't damage their chances of playing beyond Thursday with the loss. They did miss a chance to clinch the top playoff seed and the bonuses that accompany it, including last-rock advantage through the playoffs. Saskatchewan can still secure first Thursday when they face New Brunswick and B.C.

Canada's Jennifer Jones was 6-2 with a highly anticipated game at night against former third Cathy Overton-Clapham, who is skipping Manitoba.

After opening the Scotties 5-0, Ontario's Rachel Homan has lost three of her last four games, including a pair Wednesday. The Ottawa rink fell into a tie at 6-3 with Alberta's Shannon Kleibrink, now mounting a playoff push after lurking in the weeds all week.

"We've got to win the next two that's for sure," said Homan, who meets the Territories and Quebec on Thursday.

"We're struggling a bit. We feel we can turn it around any game."

Saskatchewan's meeting with Nova Scotia had more playoff implications for Smith-Dacey's team as they were fighting for their playoff lives at 5-3 with a game remaining at night against Newfoundland.

Ontario fell 10-6 to Manitoba and 7-4 to Jones, while Alberta downed New Brunswick 7-3 and Quebec 9-4 on Wednesday.

"With Ontario, is that their third loss now?" Kleibrink asked as she considered the playoff possibilities. "That brought them back and it's looking like four losses might get you something.

"As an event goes on, we"ll always get better and better. All teams are, that's the thing. We know we're going to be there at the end if we play like we can."

Holland doesn't like to get caught up in playoff permutations because she feels that drains energy that is precious late in the preliminary round.

"If you start looking at all that stuff it become so complicated and it doesn't need to be," she said. "We came here to curl and curling means putting the rock in your hands and throwing the rock with the right weight at the broom.

"I guess in a way you look at the leaderboard and kind of sense 'OK we know where we are,"' Holland allowed. "Whatever, rocks, ice, hit broom, throw rocks, it's all good. That's it. Go do it again."

Suzanne Birt's P.E.I. team lost 7-6 in an extra end to Kerry Galusha of the Territories, dropping the host team to 4-5.

B.C.'s Kelly Scott was 4-4, Quebec's Marie-France Larouche and the Territories were tied at was 3-5, New Brunswick's Andrea Kelly and Manitoba were 2-6 and Stacie Devereaux of Newfoundland and Labrador was 1-7.