Watch Out for the Bluenosers

You can probably count on one hand the number of people that thought Team Nova Scotia had a chance to end Day 5 at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw with a 4-5 record.

They had games against Team Manitoba and Team Canada on tap in back-to-back draws, meaning they would need to knock off two of the top teams in the world in a matter of hours.

Mary-Anne Arsenault and her rink did just that however, first handing Jennifer Jones and Manitoba their first loss, 9-6, in the morning draw and then knocking off Rachel Homan and Canada, 7-6, in the afternoon.

“It was a pretty good day, can’t complain,” said Arsenault, skip of Nova Scotia, who is a world champion in her own right as a second with the Colleen Jones rink.

“I certainly didn’t expect this, but I knew that we could.”

Despite entering the day with a 2-5 record, Nova Scotia hadn’t been playing bad with four of those five losses coming by just one point.  

Arsenault had stated over and over that they felt like they could be a team with just one loss, but hadn’t got the breaks.  Those breaks came for them on Wednesday and in a big way.

“It’s that inch away kind of stuff that had been happening to us,” said Arsenault.  “I do believe that part of it is that we don’t play on these conditions very often, haven’t since two years ago, so it takes a little while to get used to how the rocks roll compared to club rocks.”

The key end for Nova Scotia came in the sixth when they loaded up the house and forced Homan into a tough runback with her final stone.  It didn’t work out and Nova Scotia posted four to go in front 6-2.

Homan didn’t go away, making a great double in the seventh to score two, but after a single from Arsenault, Canada was held to one in the ninth and could only muster a steal of one in the tenth.

Arsenault has been here and done that already when it comes to beating the top teams, heck as part of the Jones rink, she was one of the top rinks.  

Her teammates this time around however are all under-30 and outside of lead Jennifer Baxter’s trip with Arsenault to the Scotties in 2013, they’re all rookies to the national stage.

“It’s unreal, I’ve watched these guys on TV for the past years, Jennifer for the past over ten years that she’s been on top and Rachel the past five years,” said Christina Black, third for Nova Scotia, and a Scotties rookie along with second Jane Synder.  “To play them and now win, you can really believe that you deserve to be here and we have what it takes.”

“They work hard and they’ve been wanting this for a long time and they’re worthy of what we’ve accomplished today,” said Arsenault.  “They’re the future of Nova Scotia curling.”

In addition to big wins on the experience side of things, these wins are big in the standings as they move Nova Scotia back into the playoff picture.  They will still need to run the table and get some help, but a tiebreaker isn’t out of the question.

Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Northern Ontario are all 4-3 heading into games on Wednesday night.

“It’s not out of the question, 6-5, maybe we can get in, either way, it’s been an amazing week and this is an awesome day,” said Black with a laugh.

Nova Scotia has two more round robin games on Thursday to finish up as they will take on Quebec in the 9:00am draw and then British Columbia in the 7:00pm draw.