Canada’s Kerri Einarson is returning to the championship game at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Einarson beat Alberta’s Selena Sturmay 12-5 in the semifinal of the Canadian women’s curling championship in Mississauga, Ont.
Einarson will face Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes in the tournament’s final, scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
“I think if we can keep playing like that, put some pressure on them,” said Einarson on what it will take to win a fifth national championship. “I know Team Lawes is playing really well too.
“We’ve just got to put some pressure on them and come out there and make some big shots when we need them.”
It’s the 10th consecutive year that either Einarson or Rachel Homan have been finalists at the Tournament of Hearts. Homan, the reigning national champion, is missing this year’s event because she’s representing Canada at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The championship game will be a rematch of Saturday’s 1-2 Page playoff when Lawes routed Einarson 10-2 in eight ends.
“We definitely don’t do things the easy way on this team,” joked Einarson. “We’ve been through the semifinal the majority of the time, I think.
“It’s nice to get our feet under us and get used to the ice instead of sitting around all day.”
In the semifinal, Einarson made a perfectly placed draw for three in the second end for an early lead.
Sturmay replied with a single in the third to cut into Einarson’s lead. The two teams then exchanged deuces in the fourth and fifth ends for Einarson to hold a 5-3 lead.
Einarson, with hammer, grabbed two more points in the sixth when Sturmay’s final throw was inches short of Canada’s previous stone. Einarson then just made a simple draw near the button to score a deuce.
“I think we just struggled with a couple different paths, missed a couple half shots, and they made us pay for those,” said Sturmay, who is seven months pregnant. “But I’ve got to give full props to them. They’re a great team.
“They played a great game, and I’m just going to look back on this game and learn a couple things moving forward.”
Sturmay got a single in the seventh and then stole another in the eighth to cut Einarson’s lead to 7-5.
The two teams shook hands in the ninth end after Einarson scored five to put the game well out of reach for the Alberta rink.
