Patti Knezevic will be looking to break her habit of winning one and losing one each day at the B.C. Scotties.
The Prince George skip will be playing for a berth in the playoffs or a tiebreaker when she takes to the ice on Friday morning in the provincial women's curling championship at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. For the fourth straight day Knezevic split her games, but now there is no margin for error as she sits at 4-4 heading into the final round robin draw against Victoria's Sarah Wark.
"We need to post a W," Knezevic said. "We've got a job to do in the morning and then we have to go from there."
Knezevic kept her provincial dream alive Thursday night with a nail-biter of a 7-6 win over Marla Mallett from the Cloverdale Club in Surrey. She made a great double in the sixth to lie four and ended up stealing three points blowing what had been a one-point game wide open. Mallet was trying to make a double and stick to score her one, but found the hole between the two Knezevic rocks and slid through the house.
"She was playing a tough shot to get the one," Knezevic said. "There was a little bit of risk involved and I certainly didn't anticipate getting the three.
Mallett, who was also facing elimination, came back with single steals of her own in the eighth and ninth ends but couldn't complete the hat trick to force the extra end.
Knezevic and Wark are two of the four teams at 4-4 looking to grab the final two playoff berths. Allison MacInnes and Karla Thompson are also in the hunt.
The news wasn't as good for Tracey Jones of Prince George as she picked up her fifth loss on Thursday night in a 9-6 defeat to Amy Gibson of Vancouver and is out of playoff contention.
Jones, who started the day with a thrilling come from behind win against MacInnes, was unable to match that in the night cap. After giving up four in the second and pair in the fourth to Gibson, Jones was unable to score multiple points of her own until the seventh end.
The second end was decisive as Gibson, who had been eliminated from the playoffs in the afternoon draw, put on the pressure early lining up a pile of stones behind a corner guard. Gibson's fourth-rock thrower Rebecca Turley had a possible hit for five, but settled for the four points.
"If we could just have one mulligan end per game, we'd be good," Jones said. "There was just one really bad end that we all put together and we can't have that."
At the top of the standings, Victoria's Kesa Van Osch clinched a berth in the Page 1-2 game drawing the button in the 10th to beat Kamloops' Thompson 4-3 and move to 7-1 for the week.
"My team has been playing fabulous, every game we're getting better and better," Van Osch said following a win over Knezevic in the afternoon.
Van Osch will play defending champion Kelly Scott twice on Friday, first in the final round robin draw and then again in the 1-2 game. Scott stole two in the 10th to beat Victoria's Sarah Wark 6-4 and move to 7-1.
In the afternoon, Jones stole a win against MacInnes, thieving a point in the 10th and another in the extra end.
"We just persevered through there, we just battled back," Jones said. "We stuck to it, kept grinding and tried to get them in there in good spots and it worked out for us."
Jones has surrendered big ends all week and the game against MacInnes was no exception as the skip from Abbotsford put a pair of three enders on the board to take control. Jones had a chance to tie it in the ninth, but came up light on a draw for her second point.
Her draw weight was perfect from there on, as she forced MacInnes' hand in the final two ends. In the 10th MacInnes was heavy on a draw against three, giving up a steal of one and in the extra MacInnes jammed on a double takeout attempt.
"We got them in good position, then we got a couple of breaks from the other team and we pounced it," Jones said.
Knezevic got off to a rough start on Thursday, losing 9-6 to Van Osch. Knezevic took the blame for the defeat, pointing to a mistake she made in the first when she failed to stick her shooter on a hit for two in the first and then flashed a takeout in the second setting up a pair for Van Osch.
"My team played fairly well, I definitely struggled," she said. "They set me up well, especially at the beginning, I just didn't throw that well."
The final round robin draw is set for 9:30 a.m. on Friday and if a tiebreaker is needed there could be a 2 p.m. draw. The playoffs begin on Friday night with the Page 1-2 game at 7 p.m.
The Page 3-4 game will go Saturday at 10 a.m. and the semifinal is set for 7 p.m. Sunday's final is 5 p.m.
Standings:
Scott 7-1
Van Osch 7-1
Thompson 4-4
Wark 4-4
Knezevic 4-4
MacInnes 4-4
Jones 3-5
Mallett 3-5
Gibson 3-5
Jensen 1-7
