REGINA -- There’s just one day left in the round-robin here at the 2008 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but the playoff possibilities remain almost endless.

With the conclusion of play Wednesday evening about the only thing that is a certainty is that Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink, alone in first at 8-1, has locked up a playoff spot regardless of what she does in her final two games on Thursday,

And with that, Kleibrink becomes the first Alberta team to make the playoffs at the Canadian women’s curling championship since Cathy King did it way back in 1998. King went on to win the Canadian women’s title that year.

With a 7-5 extra end victory over New Brunswick Wednesday evening, Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh took over sole posession of second place with a 7-2 record.

There are three teams tied for third at 6-3 -- Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Newfoundland was idle Wednesday evening, but Nova Scotia defeated Quebec 9-6 to create the third place logjam.

Manitoba, meanwhile, helped their playoff chances with a 7-5 victory over Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot. The win improved Manitoba to 5-4, while Saskatchewan fell to 4-5.

Manitoba remains alive at 5-4, but their best chance to make the playoffs requires them to win both their final round-robin games on Thursday and then get some losses from the teams at 6-3.

There are three teams at 4-5 heading into Thursday -- Saskatchewan, BC and Canada’s Kelly Scott, who had her three-game winning streak snapped Wednesday evening by PEI by a score of 8-5.

Those three teams need to win both their final two round-robin games on Thursday and then get all kinds of help from other teams in order to have any chance at a playoff tiebreaker game.

Hope springs eternal, however. “We may be down,” said Scott, “but we’re not out.”

The Scotties resumes Thursday morning when Manitoba plays BC, Nova Scotia plays Newfoundland, New Brunswick plays Northwest Territories/Yukon and PEI plays Alberta.

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