Canada's Kerri Einarson has captured a fifth career Scotties Tournament of Hearts title.
Einarson stole the winning point in the extra end to edge Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes 4-3 during Sunday's final at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Ont.
The Gimli, Man., team of Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess and alternate Krysten Karwacki will represent Canada at the World Women's Curling Championship, March 14-22 in Calgary.
Einarson won four straight Scotties titles from 2020-23.
It's a record-tying sixth for Birchard, who won her first championship with skip Jennifer Jones in 2018. Birchard tied Jones, Jill Officer and Colleen Jones.
Lawes, who throws last rocks with third Selena Njegovan skipping, opened with the hammer but fell behind 2-0 with Einarson stealing points in the second and fourth ends.
A deuce in the sixth tied it up, and Lawes pulled ahead 3-2 on a steal in the seventh. Einarson attempted a double that didn't go as planned, as one of the rocks hung on at the edge of the rings.
Einarson made an amazing angle raise takeout in the 10th end for the equalizer to force the extra end.
Lawes looked to make a double tap to remove Einarson's buried stone on the button, but wasn't able to bump it hard enough.
The final was the lone loss of the week for Lawes, Njegovan, second Laura Walker, lead Kristin Gordon and alternate Erin Pincott. The team posted a perfect 8-0 record in round-robin play, including a 9-4 victory over Einarson, to finish first in Pool A. After defeating Nova Scotia's Christina Black 8-6 in the Page 1-2 qualifier, Lawes trounced Einarson again 10-2 to secure a spot in the final.
Einarson regrouped with a 12-5 victory over Alberta's Selena Sturmay earlier Sunday to advance to the championship game.
Lead photo courtesy of Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver.
