Tie-Breaker, First Half

End #1: The teams played it cautiously, both seeming to get a feel for the ice. The one thing of note was that McCarville's first hit on a lone Manitoba stone in the rings rolled out, when she probably wanted to stick around; and then her second hit barely rolled out to give her the blank.
ON 0, Man 0.

End #2: As the second end unfolds, Manitoba has two in the house, splitting the rings, with one partially behind a guard. If these keeps up, it's to Man's advantage because either they will steal one or ON will be forced to take one. But of course it doesn't keep up. ON tries to freeze to the shot rock, but bounces a bit. In turn Man also tries to freeze but also bounces.

Nice hit-and-roll by Tara George (ON Vice) to take out one Man stone and roll over behind the guard. Kristen Phillips (MAN Vice) jiggled the rocks around, but then George did another nice hit and roll the other way, to leave ON lying 3. Thurston pulls off a great double, leaving her shooter behind the guard and Man lies 1.

McCarville tries to freeze to the shot rock, but comes up about 4' short. Thurston puts up a pretty daunting guard. ON can draw for one, likely but opts to try a long run-back to score two or maybe even three. What an amazing shot! I was prepared to rag on her for taking such a big chance, but she made it!
ON 3, MAN 0

End #3: MAN has a corner guard, ON two in the rings near the t-line; MAN's lead (Westcott) tries a tap back, but it doesn't really work. Hit and roll by ON, lying three. Hit and roll by Man. Hit and roll out by ON. So Man tries another tap back, this time with Wilson (Man 2nd) but it was a hit and stick instead. etc. etc.

George hits and rolls too far, setting up a draw behind the guard by Phillips. But it drifted back too far, allowing McCarville on her first shot to try to split the rings, but she came up about 6" short. Meanwhile Ray is just a tad condescending in his praise. I can just see him figuratively patting them on their heads.

Thurston has a great opportunity, but hits and rolls out too far to be 2nd shot, but the pressure is still on McCarville to make a good shot or else MAN will score 2. She tries to tap back her previous shot, but is on the centre-line side and rolls open. Hit and stick for two for MAN.
ON 3, MAN 2

End #4: Even with only one game on the ice, and no highlights from other games to show, TSN still manages to miss the opening shots. MAN starts with a centre guard, ON loses a couple and then ticks on the guard, so MAN has one in the top 8 plus a guard that they draw around but way too deep (back 12). Miharija hits and sticks; Phillips hits and rolls to the other side of the guard, which she missed by between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch!

Hit and stick by Phillips that also removed the MAN rock at the back of the house. Hit and roll by George rolls about 80% buried behind the MAN guard. Run-back attempt by Thurston just misses. The contrast in appearance between Phillips and Thurston when they stand next to each other is quite striking, eh?

McCarville purposely puts her first shot in back corner 8', leaving a strategic hit-and-roll for Thurston, but she's wide of the broom, giving McCarville an open draw for two. Wow! Why wasn't MAN sweeping that one?? It was pretty darned deep! As Linda points out at the beginning of the 5th end. Ray says they couldn't have swept it out, but I'm not so sure.... it was really drifting.
ON 5, MAN 2

End #5: Same as before: two in the house by ON, long corner guard by MAN, this time a successful tap-back by Westcott. ON removes the guard. Another tap-back by MAN, a bit firm. Miharija removes an ON and a MAN rock, along with her shooter, leaving two ON and one MAN in the house. MAN tries to draw up to one ON rock, but is about two feet short. ON neatly picks out a MAN rock. So MAN does another tap-back attempt, but ended up with a corner freeze to sit shot touching the button. George removes them both, leaving her shooter as shot. But MAN has 2nd shot and is in good shape to get a deuce. Except Phillips just ticks on her second shot, leaving ON sitting first and second shot.

Gotta love hearing the discussions of strategy! ON peels the back MAN stone. Thurston hits and taps to lie 1-2, leaving McCarville with a dicey double, but she missed the back stone, and so Thurston has a draw to the 8' for two, but she was light and scored only one.
ON 5, MAN 3

Break Time!