It was an ideal situation for many curlers Jen Rusnell found herself in at the 2012 B.C. Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The Prince George Curling Club skip was down 3-2 but had the hammer heading to the 10th end at the North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver in Friday's second tiebreaker for both Rusnell (5-4) and New Westminister's Kelley Law (5-4). But experience won out in the end as Law's rink stole three for the 6-2 win and a spot in the 10 a.m. 3-4 page-playoff game against Roselyn Craig (6-3) today.
It was a tight defensive draw with five blank ends and tied 1-1 after five. Law picked up two in the sixth end to go up 3-2 before Rusnell blank the next two ends to retain the hammer in 10.
Kelowna's Kelly Scott finished on top of the leader board at 7-2 but lost to Royal City's Marla Mallett (6-3) 10-5 in an extra end Friday night. Mallett scored five in the 11th to advance to the final Sunday, while Scott will play the winner between Law and Craig today at 6 p.m.
In her first tiebreaker of the day Rusnell snapped a two-game losing streak and avenged an 8-4 round-robin loss to defeat Nicole Backe's Royal City Curling Club 8-3 in nine ends. Law edged Richmond's Marilou Richter 7-6 in 10 ends in the other tiebreaker.
All four rinks wrapped up the round-robin portion of the event with 5-4 records.
Rusnell stole points in three ends against Backe and scored deuces in the third and eighth ends -something she had trouble doing in the two previous losses. The Prince George rink opened a 5-1 advantage after five ends with the highlight a steal of two in the third.
The Rusnell team, with third Kristen Fewster, second Blaine Richards and lead Amber Cheveldave, took their single in the sixth and traded deuces in the seventh and eighth ends. Backe called it quits after giving up a steal in the ninth end.
In the morning draw Friday, Rusnell couldn't rebound from a 10-2 loss to Mallett the night before, falling 7-5 in nine ends to the Craig rink where Sarah Wark throws last rocks.
Brenda Garvey's rink, with Prince George's Patti Knezevic throwing last rocks, finished the tournament at 0-9 losing her final draw 7-5 Friday morning to Scott.
