St-Georges, Grandy, Galusha punch tickets to Canadian women's curling championship

B.C.'s Clancy Grandy and Quebec's Laurie St-Georges both went to extra ends to win their respective women's provincial curling championships Sunday and qualify for the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories also punched her ticket to the Canadian women's championship, to be held Feb. 17-26 in Kamloops, B.C.

Grandy, St-Georges and Galusha joined already qualified defending champion Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., Nunavut's Brigitte MacPhail and Yukon's Hailey Birnie.

Grandy's Vancouver Curling Club team recovered from giving up five points in the third end to Corryn Brown of Kamloops to prevail 10-9 in an extra end in the B.C. women's final in Chilliwack.

"We played aggressively, so when you play aggressively, there's always an opportunity for a big end," Grandy told Curl BC. "We just said 'stick with it, keeping playing our game' and we felt we were able to do that."

St-Georges, whose team curls out of the Laval-Sur-Le-Lac and Glenmore curling clubs, edged Lauren Horten 4-3 in an extra end to take Quebec's women's crown in Alma.

St-Georges reached the playoffs and skipped Quebec to a 6-6 record in the 2021 national championship, which was held in a bubble in Calgary because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her Quebec team went 3-5 and missed the playoffs last year in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Galusha will play in her 16th career national women's championship. Colleen Jones is the all-time leader at 21 followed by Jennifer Jones at 16.

Curling Canada does not include years where a player was an alternate, nor does it recognize the two years Galusha's N.W.T. team travelled to the Hearts, but fell short of the main draw by losing in a pre-tournament qualifier, in its official count.

Curling Canada continues the 18-team fields for its men's and women's national championship in 2023 after two years of the format.

Wild-card entries increased from one to three starting in 2021, and are determined by the top three non-qualified teams in Curling Canada's ranking system (CTRS).

Einarson, Ontario's Rachel Homan and six-time national champion Jennifer Jones of Manitoba currently rank first to third in the CTRS, but the wild cards will come from deeper in that list as Einarson already has automatic entry into the Hearts as defending champion.

Homan and Jones will also compete in their respective provincial championships later this month.

Jones' former third Kaitlyn Lawes, Alberta's Casey Scheidegger, B.C.'s Grandy and Ontario's Isabelle Ladouceur ranked fourth to seventh respectively Sunday in the CTRS.

Provincial finals in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Northern Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador are Jan. 29 and Nova Scotia on Jan. 30.

The Hearts winner will represent Canada at the world championship March 18-26 in Sandviken, Sweden.

Gauthier, Asselin, Scoffin gain entry into 2023 Tim Hortons Brier

B.C.'s Jacques Gauthier, Quebec's Felix Asselin and Yukon's Thomas Scoffin won their respective provincial and territorial men's curling championships Sunday to gain entry into the 2023 Tim Hortons Brier.

Asselin, Gauthier and Scoffin joined already qualified defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., and Nunavut's Jake Higgs in the Canadian men's championship field March 3-12 in London, Ont.

Gauthier is the son of three-time national women's champion Cathy Gauthier.

He was an alternate for Manitoba's Jason Gunnlaugson in the 2021 Brier, but makes his skipping debut along with his teammates playing in a Brier for the first time in London.

"We're hoping to scare somebody," Gauthier told Curl BC. "We're hoping to scare the big teams and see how we do on the big stage."

Asselin doubled Vincent Roberts 12-6 to take Quebec's men's final in Alma. Roberts shook hands after eight ends.

Scoffin, who defeated Andrew Komlodi 6-4 at the Whitehorse Curling Club, skipped Yukon in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 Briers with his team's best record 2-6 in 2018.

The Brier's three wild-card entries will be named next month when all provincial and territorial reps will have been determined.

Manitoba's Matt Dunstone, Gushue and Alberta's Kevin Koe ranked first to third Sunday on the CTRS, but the wild cards will come from deeper in that list as Gushue already has an automatic Brier entry as the defending champion.

Dunstone and four-time national champion Koe will also compete in their respective provincial championships next month.

Ontario, Northern Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador conclude their men's provincials Jan. 29 and Nova Scotia on Jan. 30.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and New Brunswick hold their men's provincial and territorial championships in February.

The Brier champion will represent Canada at the world men's championship April 1-9 in Ottawa.