News National

OSHAWA, Ont. — Calgary’s Chelsea Carey and Winnipeg’s Kristy McDonald climbed into the win column during Draw 6 Thursday morning at the National. 

Carey clipped Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 5-3 in a Battle of Alberta match-up while McDonald held off American Jamie Sinclair 4-2. 

Both Carey and McDonald entered Day 3 of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament with 0-2 records and had to score victories to stay in the mix for playoff contention. Carey lost her first game Wednesday after running out of time during their final throw and Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson capitalized to score three and grab a 6-5 comeback win. Her second game of the day against Ottawa’s Rachel Homan went into an extra end and the recently crowned Masters champion prevailed 7-5. 

“We needed that,” Carey said. “We had a really tough situation in our first game yesterday, didn’t really deserve a loss there but took one and that was difficult to swallow. We played pretty well last night into an extra end and another loss there so you start to go, ‘ugh, okay come on.'”

Carey opened with hammer and scored two in the second. The teams alternated singles through the remainder of the game capped with Carey making a short raise to the button with her last rock in the eighth end to secure the victory. 

“We needed to rebound with a win here today to keep our chances alive,” Carey said. “Luckily we came out and played pretty well and were able to pull it off.”

Rocque, a two-time world junior champion, has a 1-1 record in pool play. 

Meanwhile, McDonald trailed by one at the fourth-end break and scored a deuce followed by a steal in six to go up 3-1. Sinclair (0-2) settled for a single in seven but McDonald matched in eight. 

Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones rolled out to a 9-1 rout in just four ends over EunJung Kim of South Korea. Jones (2-0) scored a deuce in the first and swiped a pair in the second. Kim (1-1) was limited to a single in three and shook hands after Jones scored five in the fourth.  

Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater fended off reigning Ontario champion Julie Hastings of Thornhill 5-3 in a rematch of last season’s provincial final. Middaugh is at 1-1 while Hastings fell to 0-2. 

Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher scored a deuce in the seventh and stole two in the eighth end to beat reigning Brier champion Pat Simmons of Calgary 6-3 in the lone men’s match on the draw. Both teams are even at 1-1 records.

The National is the third stop and second major on the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour and runs through to Sunday evening at the General Motors Centre. Previously a men’s invitational, the event expanded this year to include a women’s division for the first time.

TV coverage of the National begins at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT on Sportsnet.