Play deteriorated amid great shotmaking as Team Homan are now one win away from the Olympic Games
HALIFAX – Ottawa’s Rachel Homan overcame a stubborn opponent and tricky playing conditions to stand poised, now one win away, from a return to the Olympic Winter Games.
Homan defeated Christina Black of Halifax 5-4 in a wild Game 1 of their best-of-three playoff to decide Canada’s Olympic women’s fours team at Milano-Cortina in February.
The match starts with strong shotmaking but the skill levels disintegrated somewhat, as challenging conditions crept into play.
Homan started with hammer and was forced to one in the second end.
End three was spicy. Black was looking great until longtime Homan teammate Emma Miskew made a tremendous come-around freeze. Black third Jillian Brothers then made two runbacks, which helped, but Homan still worked to apply pressure.
In the end, however, the Halifax skip had a relatively open draw against two Homan counters to tie the game. The crowd urged her sweepers on but despite power brushing Homan stole one, and it was suddenly 2-0.
The fourth end saw Black facing trouble on her last stone. She ignored a draw option for a single point, and focussed on an angle runback for two points to tie the game. Make it, and the crowd would erupt and become a factor in. Miss it, and Homan goes up 3-0 after four… with a silent crowd.
Black’s throw was a touch wide from release, and the running stone missed its mark.
In the fifth end a missed peel from Miskew still removed a Black counter, and when a Black come-around slipped deep, Homan third Tracey Fleury – who had thrown a machinelike 90% throughout the round robin – made the freeze.
No less than four uncharacteristic misses followed – from Fleury, Brothers, Homan and Black – all in a row, ending up in the top 12-foot. Homan then ensured she would get around that infernal guard, and left her shot stone mostly open, but Black chose to draw – against three.
Back made it, carefully, to trail 3-1 at the break.
The pro-Black crowd, at this point, was pretty much mute; not what the team was hoping for.
Even the halftime YMCA number with the mascot was a bit depressing.
Both team shooting percentages were at 76%. The TSN commentary crew were baffled at the misses, with Russ Howard calling it “the craziest thing.”
“To see so many missed the same way, almost never happens,” said Joanne Courtney.
The sixth end provided Homan with her first deuce opportunity of the match. Her open draw, however, fell short despite an end-to-end sweep and she only led 4-1.
Black almost missed her draw against many Homan counters in the seventh, but Jenn Baxter and Karlee Everist dragged it into the eight-foot rings for a 4-2 deficit.
Black stole one – briefly igniting the crowd – in the eighth end to trail 4-3. After missing a runback on her first throw, Homan seemed only concerned with dropping a pair, and was content to blast one enemy stone out and give Black the single.
The chaos continued in the ninth, with Black lying buried behind a guard as Miskew bonked a peel attempt. Fleury missed a double peel attempt – removing just one – and the crowd began to murmur. Brothers had a delicious chance to lie two behind double guards but slid heavy, to bite the back of the button.
Fleury’s second stone removed one counter and left her shooter as a tight guard – not ideal but, considering the nature of this wild affair, offering runback comfort.
Homan did just that after Black bit the button. The Ottawa skip made her shot beautifully, spilling both Black counters, leaving Black with a takeout. Homan followed Black with a hit and flop to score her single, and the favourites led 5-3.
The 10th end unveiled a profoundly messy house, as both combatants battled to get their stones into the four foot. Skins Game, anyone?
On her first stone, Black lay one but failed to make headway in prepping for a trying deuce, or even a winning three-count. Homan pounced, switching from offence to defence, and threw a guard to force Black to one side of the sheet.
Black’s final takeout could’t jostle the tying deuce, and she scored only one to fall 5-4.
So what happened in this game? Ice conditions or Olympic Trials bugaboos? Or both?
That might be the eternal question, and as the women prepare for Game 2, the players in tonight’s men’s Game 1 should be prepared for anything.
Homan, Fleury, Miskew and Sarah Wilkes are now one win away from claiming their dream trip to Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Black and Co. must beat Homan twice to upset their plans – the second game in their best-of-three series goes Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Atlantic time.