Scotties-Final-Feb22
Team Manitoba after winning the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw.

Jennifer Jones and Team Manitoba might not have played a perfect game, but they came up with the big shots when they need them to come away with the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts title.

Manitoba knocked off Val Sweeting and Team Alberta for the third time in three days, winning 6-5 in the final on Sunday night at Moose Jaw's Mosaic Place.

It’s the fifth Canadian Women’s Curling Championship for Jones, lead Dawn McEwen and second Jill Officer, while the first in three tries for third Kaitlyn Lawes.

“(Kaitlyn) has been a huge part of our team and we’ve lost a couple of finals that are a little devastating, so to come out here and win this one — it was a little close for comfort, but we managed to pull it off when we needed to,” said Jones.

“It’s a dream come true,” added Lawes.  “This is our third final that we’ve been in with this lineup and just so proud of the team to bounce back after such an amazing season last year and I won my first Scotties.”

Alberta had started the round robin 9-0, but then dropped three games, including their round robin finale and the 1v2 playoff game against Manitoba, before topping Saskatchewan in the semifinal to get to their second straight Scotties final.

Sweeting’s rink put together a very strong game in the final.

“Both teams played really good and I’m just so proud of the team, it’s been an up and down year, but if you told that would have been the final, I would have been happy with it,” said Sweeting after the loss.

On the statistical side, Sweeting and Alberta actually out curled Jones and Manitoba with an 88 to 82 percentage advantage, but they never gave them any openings after the teams traded deuces in the first two ends.

“I thought both teams played really well,” said Sweeting.  “There wasn’t too many opportunities that we had that we didn’t take. Overall I thought the team played really well and I’m just really happy that we were in a key situation like that we played well.”

The turning point came in the ninth end with Jones leading 5-4.  Sweeting set up the end perfectly to try and score two for a lead going home, but Jones was able to make two great shots to turn the end around and force Alberta to take just one and tie the game.

With the hammer in the tenth, Jones’ rink made no mistake to set up an easy draw to the four-foot for Jones with her final shot and the win.

“It wasn’t our best game for sure, but we made eight great shots in the last end and that’s really what won it for us,” said Jones.  “Val’s team played great and they made some big shots and it came down to the last shot.”

This might be Jones’ fifth Scotties title, but the fact that it was the first for Lawes wasn’t loss on the skip, who said that made this one feel special.

“We really wanted to do this with our team, to come back after the Olympics and come back strong and to have Kaitlyn have her first one is huge for us,” said Jones.

Winning is becoming second nature for the Jones team after taking Olympic gold last winter, but Lawes said getting to win a Scotties title has a different feeling.

“The Scotties is very, very special and has always been a dream of mine and I’m just very proud of the girls for hanging in there until the bitter end,” said Lawes.

Sweeting’s Alberta rink will now try to regroup against after a second straight Scotties loss.

“Even more than we did last year, the confidence and the fact that we did play well in the final, we made her again and we played better and we lost to a great team,” said Sweeting.

Jones and company will now wear the red and white again for Team Canada as they travel to Sapporo, Japan for the 2015 World Women’s Curling Championship from March 14-22.