REGINA -- It’s not often a skip can give away six points at a national championship and still win, but that’s exactly what Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh managed to pull off here at the 2008 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Sunday morning.

Playing Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot with the game tied 2-2. Middaugh needed only to pluck a lone Saskatchewan counter off the eight foot with the last rock of the sixth end to score her six-pack.

But Middaugh’s final rock brushed a guard in front of the house instead and just like that what surely would have been a game-ending six-ender for Ontario was instead a go-ahead steal of one for Saskatchewan.

It was a huge break for Englot, who came into the game at 0-1 and needed the win, with a game against two-time defending champion Canada looming this evening.

But the gift from Middaugh was the last Englot would receive Sunday morning, as Middaugh simply took over from there, reclaiming the lead with a deuce in the seventh end and then effectively putting the game away for good with a steal of three in the eighth end.

Facing four, Englot needed a delicate hit and roll with the last rock of the eighth end to avoid a multiple steal. She got the hit, but not the roll and the result was she could only cut down Ontario by one.


Ontario went on to win 7-4 to improve to 2-0. Saskatchewan falls to 0-2.

In the only other game on a truncated Sunday morning draw, Team Canada’s Kelly Scott defeated Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche 8-4. Canada improves to 1-1, while Quebec drops to 1-1.

The Scotties resumes this afternoon when Newfoundland and Labrador (1-0) plays Alberta (1-0); Nova Scotia (1-1) plays Manitoba (2-0); New Brunswick (0-2) plays PEI (1-1); and Northwest Territories/Yukon (0-1) plays BC (0-1).

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