Mallett maintains lead at Hearts

Marla Mallett of British Columbia moved atop the leaderboard and Quebec's Marie-France Larouche surged into contention Tuesday at the Tournament of Hearts in Victoria.

Mallett, a former world junior champion (1988) who plays out of Vancouver, is 6-1 through 11 draws at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, followed by Larouche and Team Canada's Jennifer Jones, the reigning national and world champion from Winnipeg.

Both Canada and Quebec have 5-2 records, with Larouche winning twice Tuesday and Jones suffering her first two losses of the tournament, including a stunner.  

"We're almost where we want to be," Larouche said.

"We weren't as sharp as we needed to be today," Jones said.

Mallett had a bye in the evening draw, in which Jones was upset 7-6 by Kerry Galusha of the Territories (2-5).

"I have never beaten Team Canada before," said Galusha, who is 22 weeks pregnant. "I don't think we have ever had close games with Team Canada."

"I have been struggling with my hits all weeks," she continued. "With my pregnancy, my belly is starting to get in the way with my hits."

Galusha is the first Territories skip to defeat Canada since 1987, when Sherry Aucoin of Whitehorse surprised Marilyn Darte 8-4 at Lethbridge, Alta.

"They're the best team in the world," Galusha said. "I'm friends with all of them and they're such great curlers and I hope they win this."

Saskatchewan skip Stefanie Lawton extended her winning streak to four games with a pair of impressive victories — 7-6 over Jones and 10-6 over Galusha.

"Our front end is curling awesome," Lawton said. "They're the best front end out there.

"They make a ton of shots. It makes it a lot easier on [third] Marliese [Kasner] and I."

Lawton (4-3), who opened the tournament with three straight losses, sits two games in arrears of Mallett (6-1), who moved into sole possession of first place by virtue of a 7-5 victory over New Brunswick's Andrea Kelly (3-4) in the afternoon draw.

"We're catching on to the ice and making great shots out there," Lawton said. "Every game is getting stronger and that is what we want to build on.

"We know we can still improve. But we definitely feel good."

'The field is just too good'

Early on Tuesday, Mallett thumped Manitoba's Barb Spencer 12-4 in Draw 9, counting a steal of two in the first end, three in the third and five in the fifth.

Spencer (2-5) later yielded a five-spot in the ninth end of a 10-7 loss to Kelly.

"You have to bring your best to the ice every time you come out or you're going to get beat," Mallett said. "The field is just too good."

Larouche opened with a deuce in the first and scored three in the fifth en route to a 7-5 victory over Nova Scotia's Nancy McConnery (1-6) in their nightcap.

That result, coupled with a 10-8, extra-end win over Ontario's Krista McCarville (3-4), vaulted Larouche into second-place in the standings, tied with Jones.

"We just tried to look at the games we played [Monday] and figure out what went wrong," Larouche said. "For today, that was just throwing well and trying to be in the right place."  

Alberta's Cheryl Bernard stumbled badly, losing 8-6 to Newfoundland and Labrador's Heather Strong (3-4) and 7-6 to Prince Edward Island's Robyn McPhee (4-3).

In Draw 10, Strong scored four points in the fourth end in a 9-3 win over McPhee, who rebounded by beating Bernard (4-3) in evening play.