‘That was unreal’: Homan emerges victorious over Jones to reach Scotties final
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CALGARY — Rachel Homan threw her most incredible shot of the week to force an extra end against the great Jennifer Jones, with a berth to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final on the line. Homan then looked at her team, straight-faced, and said: “Let’s go.”
The shot brought most of the 3,186 fans in WinSport Arena to their feet, and not for the first time.
When it was all over, Homan hugged her teammates and yelled: “That was unreal!”
On Saturday night, Homan and Team Ontario won an absolute knockdown, drag-out battle in an extra end over Jones and Team Manitoba to punch a ticket to Sunday night’s national final, pulling off a steal in the 11th to seal the 6-4 win.
“Unbelievable game. They played unbelievable,” Homan said, smiling and wide-eyed when it was over. “They had us in a pile of trouble at the end and we just stuck with it, and unbelievable sweep by my sweepers to get to the pin to continue the game.”
Unbelievable shot there too, skip.
In the 10th, Ontario was down by one and on her last shot, Homan faced one that Ontario coach Don Bartlett graded with “a degree of difficulty that was off the charts,” to extend the game.
Homan had taken one draw all game long, but she floated this one in there just like it was headed toward a magnet on the button, and then raised her broom in the air and yelled: “F— yeah!”
“I thought she was going to rub on the front a little bit more, and she just kind of just feathered it and made it perfect,” Jones said.
Bartlett shook his head thinking about that shot.
“Outstanding,” the coach said, laughing. “She only threw a couple draws all game, and to make a shot like that when you had to? Wow. It just got by the guard. And to do that against the Greatest of All Time? Just incredible.”
Still, Ontario lead Sarah Wilkes said the draw in 10 was never in doubt.
“It’s Rachel Homan,” Wilkes said, laughing, by way of explanation. “It was thrilling. I’m still shaking.”
Into the 11th, no team in this field had stolen more points than Homan’s, and the skip said she knew she had a chance to get another on Saturday. She forced Jones to make a runback takeout, and Jones’ attempt rolled wide.
“I just missed my last shot,” Jones said, with a laugh. “It was a great game, a fun game to be a part of.”
Fun to watch, too. If that was a preview of Sunday’s Scotties final, what a treat. But first, Team Jones will face another Manitoba team earlier Sunday, skipped by Kate Cameron, with the winner advancing to play Team Homan for all the marbles.
This Saturday night tilt started with an eight-year-old girl sweetly singing the national anthem, and both teams were back and forth on the ice early on, and then the gloves came off in the ninth end before that Hollywood finish.
Jones had one word for what she’d expect if her team earns the rematch: “Fun,” she said.
“A rematch should probably be more of the same,” Homan added.
If Jones makes it there, it’ll be her last-ever appearance at the Scotties, since she’s retiring from women’s curling at the end of the season.
Whoever faces Team Homan on Sunday will be the underdog. No team is on the run Homan’s is this season. The skip, third Tracy Fleury and second Emma Miskew were all named Scotties first-team all-stars Saturday, while Wilkes was named to the second team. They’ve lost just five times this season. Won five titles. They’ve lost to one Canadian team all year.
“And most of the losses we had were when Rachel just had a baby,” Bartlett said. Homan had her third child, Briggs, six months ago. “Like, she wasn’t sharp — her body wasn’t sharp yet, right? Yeah, so it’s just an incredible record.”
Bartlett said what sets Homan apart from others is her preparation. He’s on the ice with her two or three times a week, and she also practises on her own.
“She watches video. She watches all the sheets and charts all the sheets — she’s got a pen and paper, and she charts every line on every sheet, what it’s going to do,” Bartlett said. “She goes to the gym, lifts weights, probably throws more rocks than anybody.”
There’s one more game here for Team Homan, a shot to win the skipper and Miskew a fourth Scotties. It would be a second for Wilkes, and a first for Fleury.
Not since 2017 has Homan won here, and in 2021 her Team Ontario lost in the final. A sign in the crowd this week reads “The Homan Empire,” and lists the years of those three championship wins — 2017, 2014 and 2013 — and also says: “It’s time.” It’s fair to say for a team that hasn’t lost since Jan. 17.
“So proud of my team for staying tough and staying together and believing to the end,” Homan said, after their latest win, and toughest yet at these Scotties. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling to be able to beat Jenn at her absolute best. Like, that was a huge game, a battle back and forth — it had everything.”
There’s a chance we’ll see another game with everything in it on Sunday, and this time, with everything on the line.
Bartlett thought about what it would mean to this team to win another Scotties title.
“The world, I think,” he said. “Rachel’s waited seven years now. She’s prepared. If she doesn’t win, it’s not because she wasn’t prepared. She’s ready.”
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