Team Alberta has won its eighth Canadian national women’s curling championship. On Sunday, in an historic comeback, Team Alberta, skipped by Chelsea Carey of Calgary, beat Team Ontario, skipped by Rachel Homan of Ottawa, by a score of 8-6 in the final of the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts from Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Carey’s win was the largest comeback in the finals in the history of championship finals at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. After five ends, Alberta was down 5-1. However, Alberta bounced back with one stolen point in the sixth, seventh and 10th ends and then two stolen points in the 11th end.
Carey has now won two Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The first came in 2016 when Alberta beat Northern Ontario 7-6 in the final in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Carey, third Sarah Wikes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachelle Brown, will represent Team Canada at the 2019 Women’s World Curling Championship in Silkeborg, Denmark. Team Canada’s first round robin game is March 16 against South Korea’s Min-ji Kim. It should be recognized that this is a different South Korean team that represented South Korea and shockingly won a silver medal in women’s curling at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
After a tough first day of the championship pool standings, where Alberta lost 10-8 to Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones and 10-6 to Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt, Carey’s squad would win their last four games in the tournament. Prior to their win over Ontario in the final, Alberta beat Saskatchewan 10-3 and Team Wildcard (skipped by Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alberta) 9-8 to close out the championship pool play, and then Saskatchewan 11-7 in the 1-2 page playoff game.
