Alberta skip Heather Nedohin reacts to her shot during the semi-final game at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling championship in Red Deer, Alberta February 25, 2012. REUTERS/Todd KorolTodd Korol/Reuters
It took Heather Nedohin 12 years to get back to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. It took one glorious Saturday for her to make it to the championship final.
After beating Quebec in a morning playoff game, Nedohin and her Alberta rink took on four-time Scotties' winner Jennifer Jones from Manitoba in an evening semi-final. The outcome, an oh-so close 6-5 win for Nedohin in 11 ends, means she'll be in Sunday's finale against B.C.'s Kelly Scott (3:30 p.m. ET) with a chance to give Alberta its first Scotties title since 1998.
Edmonton's Cathy King claimed the national championship that year with Nedohin as her third.
"I'm going to enjoy this," said an emotionally-charged Nedohin. "That roar of the crowd was pretty sweet. We played the No. 1 team. We played hard and good on us."
The Alberta-Manitoba semi-final was everything curling fans expected, a tight encounter spiced with plenty of give and take and pressure-packed shots. With the score deadlocked at 4-4 through seven, the drama really picked up.
In the eighth, Jones' last rock nicked a guard leaving an opening for Nedohin, who used the hammer to bump a Manitoba stone and count one for a 5-4 lead. Jones scored one in the 10th to send the game to an extra end, leaving Nedohin with a draw to the button for the win.
At first, it looked as if Nedohin's rock had slid past Jones'. It was measured once then twice before Nedohin let herself soak in the crowd's approval.
"I was in [teammate]Laine [Peters']arms and she said, 'It's us,'" Nedohin explained. "Then she said, 'They're re-measuring.' I said, 'I can't handle this' … I'm in shock right now."
Early Saturday, Nedohin won her first Scotties playoff game as a skip by defeating Quebec's Marie-France Larouche, 7-4. Late in that game, second Jessica Mair fell while sweeping, almost touching the stone. Lead Laine Peters was able to push Mair out of the way to avoid disaster
Afterwards, Nedohin said: "We've been working on this new sweeping technique and we've had a lot of falls. Honestly, head's up for Laine to giving [Mair] the boot."
Alberta had a slow start to the Scotties posting a 2-3 record at one point in the round-robin. The Edmonton team then won five of its last six games to clinch the last playoff spot and begin its trek to the final.
"Heather's team played outstanding today," assessed Jones, who will face Quebec in Sunday's bronze medal game. "I thought we played better in the second half. It was not to be."
Nedohin first skipped a foursome to the Scotties in 2000 only to finish 6-5 and miss the playoffs. After that, Shannon Kliebrink and Cheryl Bernard dominated the provincial scene, relegating Nedohin to the shadows where she worked on her game until, at last, winning the Alberta provincials earlier this month in Leduc.
All four members of the Manitoba rink – lead Dawn Askin, second Jill Officer, third Kaitlyn Lawes and Jones - were voted to the 2012 Scotties' first all-star team.