Team Einarson finding its form

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This article was published 13/02/2025 (220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a season that change has been the only constant for Kerri Einarson, the stability she’s longed for may have come at a perfect time.

The Gimli skip will lead a lineup missing some of its regular players into the Canadian women’s curling championship for the second year in a row, beginning Friday at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Einarson, who won four consecutive titles from 2020-2023 and lost in a playoff qualifier last year, still has third Val Sweeting by her side but will look to return to the top of the podium with a modified front-end, with recently acquired Karlee Burgess throwing second and Krysten Karwacki at lead.

Karwacki has played at her spot since last year’s Canadian championship when she was called in to replace Briane Harris at the last minute and later named a First-Team All-Star. Meanwhile, Burgess joined the team last month after Einarson recruited her from Chelsea Carey’s struggling squad.

Though she’s only played in one event, the addition of Burgess has brought a sense of stability to the team for the first time in a while.

Shannon Birchard, who typically plays second, dealt with a nagging knee injury that limited her to one appearance this season and created a revolving door at her position as she tried to return to the lineup. Birchard shut it down for the year after re-aggravating the ailment in December.

“She fits in great,” Einarson said of Burgess. “Her energy and she’s just so outgoing and easy going, so it just makes things flow that much easier. She’s a great shot-maker and a great sweeper, so we’re very excited to have her on board.

“We had a great week in Guelph with her. We qualified (for playoffs). That was definitely our first goal. And even those games that we lost, we played really well, so it was still good going forward.”

Meanwhile, Harris will miss a consecutive national championship owing to the provisional suspension she was handed on the eve of last year’s tournament after testing positive for an illegal substance.

Harris’ ban from competitive curling was lifted last month after winning her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the news came too late as Einarson had already submitted her lineup for this event. Harris was then thought to be shoo-in as the alternate, but Einarson had committed to Lauren Lenentine for that spot.

The team met in December to discuss what its best path to success would be. With their challenges of icing a consistent lineup in mind, they knew continuity was exactly what they needed.

“It’s definitely going to be different. It’s been different all season,” said Einarson, who will play for a national title without Birchard and Harris in the lineup for the first time since the team formed in 2018.

“It was a very, very difficult decision, and no one took it lightly by any means, but we did what we thought was best for the team with all the unknowns that we had with Briane not getting her news yet, and also Shannon…”

Despite the juggling act this season, Einarson has shown she can never be counted out. Ranked No. 2 in the country, she’s won two tournaments with Sweeting, Karwacki and different people playing second.

The team also continues to boast a wealth of experience. Karwacki debuted last year after serving as an alternate four times at the tournament. Meanwhile, Burgess and Lenentine have reached the championship final in each of the last two seasons with now-retired Jennifer Jones.

“We just want to go out this week and focus on the team now and going forward into the week,” said Einarson. “We’re just going to really embrace it and go out there and enjoy ourselves.”

As the second seed, Einarson is the highest-seeded team of three Manitoban squads, which will be pooled together for round-robin play. Joining her are third seed Kaitlyn Lawes and seventh seed Kate Cameron, both of Winnipeg.

Cameron, who won bronze as a wild-card last year, earned a berth after winning the provincial championship last month in Pilot Mound.

Her nationally-ranked No. 6 team will also look different as Taylor McDonald slid from second to third this season and new-second Brianna Cullen prepares to make her Canadian championship debut. The lead role remains intact as Mackenzie Elias returns for another crack.

Cameron has been pleased with the results for the most part this season, which includes reaching the finals in two other events, but she believes her team is peaking at the right time.

“Going into this season, we knew the whole time we did not have a wild-card spot… so we knew already putting this team together, adding in Brianna, that our goal was to win provincials,” said Cameron.

“Obviously, it puts a lot more pressure on that week of provincials and I think it’s big for us that that was our goal going into the season and making sure that we can peak at that provincial and make sure that we can find a way to perform, and I think it’s big for us that we were able to do that. So I think that gives us a bit of extra confidence going into this.”

Meanwhile, No. 5 ranked Lawes — along with third Selena Njegovan, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Kristin Gordon — might be the biggest unknown out of the Manitobans entering play. She hasn’t made it past the semifinal in any event this season but has reached that stage four times while navigating the birth of her second child in November.

Like Einarson, Lawes pre-qualified for the tournament before the season based on her standing in the Canadian Team Ranking System, except she has largely flown under the radar to a 24-23 record.

Her team always has the benefit of experience, however, and will certainly need to lean on its combined 39 national championship appearances as it looks for its best result of the season.

“It’s kind of exciting going into a big event like this, going under the radar a little bit,” said Lawes, who backed her way into the playoffs before being eliminated in the a page-playoff qualifier last year.

“We play a sport that anything can happen if you’re on the wrong side of the inch — or millimetre — and being a team that was formed for a four-year process, we’re just trying to have the perspective of every season we want to build and try to figure out what works… and it’s been a fun process trying to put that all together,” she said.

“Obviously, when we step on the ice, our goal is to win, and that hasn’t happened but we’ve had a lot of learning opportunities and it’s just a part of the growth.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca