Homan rink to compete at Scotties after losing spot last season

Curling Canada announced Wednesday that Rachel Homan's Ottawa rink will play in the wild-card game at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Feb. 15 if the skip doesn't earn an automatic spot by winning the Ontario championship.

Ottawa skip will play wild-card game Feb. 15 if she doesn’t earn bye with Ontario title

"Team Homan supports Curling Canada's updated residency rules," the team said in a statement. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press/File)

Rachel Homan's rink has a guaranteed berth in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after all.

Curling Canada announced Wednesday that the Ottawa team will play in the wild-card game Feb. 15 if Homan doesn't earn an automatic spot by winning the Ontario championship.

The wild-card game, which debuted last year, was slated to have the top two teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System not already automatically in the national women's championship. Now, Homan is guaranteed a spot in that game, though there was a good chance she would have qualified under the old format as well.

Homan's rink, which includes third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle, was supposed to be Team Canada at the 2018 Scotties, but had to decline the berth after winning Canada's Olympic spot last season.

The wild-card game winner will become the 16th and final team in the Scotties.

The main draw of the Scotties runs Feb. 16-24, 2019 at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S.