GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. - A heist by Krista McCarville's team from Thunder Bay earned Northern Ontario a berth in the semifinal of the Canadian women's curling championship Saturday.

Struggling for seven ends, McCarville scored two in the eighth, stole a point in the ninth and stole another two in the 10th to beat Manitoba's Kerri Einarson 7-5 in the Page playoff between the third and fourth seeds.

Northern Ontario earned a semifinal matchup against defending champion Jennifer Jones in the evening. A couple of scramble wins by McCarville early in the preliminary round were dress rehearsals for Saturday's comeback victory.

Northern Ontario stole a total of four points in the 10th and extra ends to beat Nova Scotia. McCarville also made a pressure draw to the four-foot rings to score two for a victory against Jones in the round robin.

"I think it kind of shows what we've done this whole week," McCarville said. "We've been down the first half of the game in a lot of our games and we've really battled back in the last five."

The semifinal winner meets Alberta's Chelsea Carey in Sunday's championship game.

McCarville's team capped the preliminary round 7-4 and claimed the fourth and final playoff berth.

McCarville and second Ashley Sippala came within two wins of a Scotties Tournament of Hearts title in 2010 when they represented Ontario.

Lead Sarah Potts is the daughter of former Canadian champion Rick Lang. Third Kendra Lilly lives in Sudbury and commutes to play and practise with her teammates.

Sippala touched her skip's final stone of the fourth end with her foot while sweeping it. The burned rock was pulled and Einarson had an open draw for two and a 3-1 lead.

Einarson won the battle at skip for seven ends with 91 per cent shooting accuracy to McCarville's 66. Manitoba led 5-2 at the fifth-end break.

But Manitoba's game began to fray in the eighth when Northern Ontario scored two to pull within a point. McCarville started putting pressure on the Manitobans.

McCarville's tap to lay two on the four-foot rings in the 10th left Einarson with an angle raise for a piece of the button and the win. The raised stone angled too sharply.

Einarson, third Selena Kaat, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish are all under the age of 28 and were tournament rookies at this year's Tournament of Hearts.

Einarson's electrifying double to score three for the win over New Brunswick in the final round-robin draw vaulted the East St. Paul team into the playoffs with a 7-4 record.

The skip needed time after the game to compose herself after Saturday's loss. Manitoba will play the semifinal loser for the bronze medal Sunday.

"This just makes us even stronger," Einarson said. "You've got to lose before you win.

"We just want to come back. We've proved to everyone we belong here, so we're going to come back and do our best."