THUNDER BAY — Tracy Fleury was creating happier memories at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., than three years ago in the same city.
Fleury arrived at the 2022 Canadian women's curling championship ready to skip a wild-card team in an arena empty of fans because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Fleury caught the virus. She spent all but the last three games quarantined in her hotel room watching on television as her team competed without her.
"It was a tough week and a strange time for sure," Fleury recalled. "It was a challenging week not knowing when I would be able to play, and very isolating being in a hotel away from your family and team for that long."
Three years later, the 38-year-old from Sudbury, Ont., is Rachel Homan's vice in Thunder Bay and a driver of the team success in seven straight wins to open the championship. Fleury owned the top shooting percentage among all thirds at almost 88 per cent Wednesday.
"It's nice to actually be able to go out and explore the city and try the restaurants," she said.
Homan, Fleury and front end Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes went undefeated to win the Canadian title in 2024 and also claim a world championship. The Ottawa Curling Club foursome is on another run in Thunder Bay.
"The goal, of course, is to win it, but there's a lot of different ways to do that, right?" Fleury said. "We just go one game at a time and try to bring our best."
Homan's seventh win was a 9-3 decision over Nunavut's Julia Weagle on Wednesday evening to secure top spot in Pool A.
The top three teams in each pool of nine advance and battle Friday for four Page playoff berths. Sunday's winner at the Fort William Gardens represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea, and earns $100,000 in prize money.
With no tiebreaker games, head-to-head results resolve ties for third. If needed, the next tiebreaker is ranking the cumulative distances of last-stone draws that precede each draw.
B.C.'s Corryn Brown and Alberta's Kayla Skrlik were Wednesday winners to get to 5-2 and secure playoff berths behind Homan, although their ranking was still to be determined.
Skrlik defeated Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo 7-5 and Brown was a 9-5 winner over New Brunswick's Melissa Adams.
Saskatchewan's Nancy Martin defeated Selena Sturmay 9-8 to finish with a 5-3 record. Both Sturmay (4-3) and Martin finished outside the playoff cutline because of losses to Brown and Skrlik.
But the race was still on in Pool B with Ontario's Danielle Inglis leading at 5-1 and Quebec's Laurie St-Georges at 5-2.
Four-time Hearts champion Kerri Einarson of Manitoba produced a second straight come-from-behind victory. Einarson beat Nova Scotia's Christina Black 9-6 to draw even with Black at 4-2.
Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes (4-3) wasn't out contention either.
Inglis stealing points in the 10th and 11th in an 8-6 win over Manitoba's Kate Cameron was the equivalent of a four-point swing in the NHL standings.
"We've had some big wins, but that is our biggest win to date," said Inglis, whose team curls out of the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
Cameron, whose team finished third last year in Calgary, ticked a guard on an attempted hit in the 10th and was light on a draw for a piece of the button to fall to 3-3.
St-Georges was an 8-4 winner over Yukon's Bayly Scoffin. With seasoned veterans Jamie Sinclair at vice and three-time Hearts champ Lisa Weagle at lead, St-Georges feels her team has what it takes to be a playoff team.
"It would mean the world, for sure," St-Georges said. "It's been a long time since Quebec's been in the playoffs, so I think it's a good opportunity. But we're not like getting ahead of ourselves. We're just focusing on having a good meal tonight, maybe a little drink and then try to come back strong tomorrow."
Einarson's win over Black was almost as Houdini-like as her great escape against Cameron the previous evening when her team was down 7-2 after five.
Trailing Black 5-1 after five ends as Einarson's draw weight deserted her, she and her teammates outscored Black 6-1 over the back half of the game.
"I told myself, 'either keep fighting or get off the sheet' and I just kept fighting," said Einarson, who noticed in early ends that her shooting percentage displayed on the centre-ice scoreboard read 25 per cent.
"Ouch. That hurts," the skip said. "I just knew 'keep throwing it Kerri, just keep putting pressure on them and hopefully we'll get some mistakes' and we did."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
