Teams Homan, Einarson to play for first place at 2025 Montana’s Canadian Trials

Two teams are one step closer to their ultimate goals this week at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing.

Both Team Kerri Einarson (6-0) of Gimli, Man., and Team Rachel Homan (5-1) of Ottawa earned wins on Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Arena in Halifax. Those victories guarantee both teams a spot in the three-team playoffs and set up a tantalizing round-robin finale matchup for first place and a bye into the best-of-three final.

Homan — backed by vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown and coach Heather Nedohin — defeated Team Kaitlyn Lawes (3-3, Winnipeg) 8-7. Team Homan gave up a steal of three in the seventh end; however, the two-time reigning Canadian and world champions replied with two in eight and stole a single in nine for a two-point lead. Team Lawes had a chance to bring the game to an extra, but it was heavy on the draw, settling for one.

“I think we had a tough break there, and we stayed tough. We stayed resilient, we fought back and put ourselves in a good opportunity to take control of the game back,” Homan said.

Einarson entered the night game with a playoff spot already secured, thanks to a morning win and favourable other results. Einarson, vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess, alternate Krysten Karwacki, and coach Reid Carruthers continued their strong run with a 6-5 win over Calgary’s Team Kayla Skrlik (2-4), maintaining their pace.

This game wasn’t settled until the 10th end, with Team Einarson scoring a single in the final frame to stay flawless in the round robin.

Einarson, a four-time Canadian women’s champion, is finding a new gear with her lineup, which started the season hot before tapering.

“Given the season we’ve had, I know we came out with a win for the start of our season, and then it was just kind of taken away and grinding,” Einarson said. “We’ve been really coming together this week as a team and as a unit, so it feels really good.”

Now both teams are on a collision course for Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. (all times Atlantic). The winner gets a golden ticket to the best-of-three final, starting Friday. Despite this, both skips are focused and will treat it like any other game.

“I think if we just keep doing what we’re doing and capitalizing on opportunities that are given to us, I think that’ll be key for tomorrow and just focus on one rock at a time,” Einarson said.

“I mean more of the same,” Homan said. “We came out strong, we want to come out strong again tomorrow, and just more of the same, learned some ice conditions tonight.”

Halifax’s Team Christina Black (3-3) had a chance to secure the final playoff spot but lost 9-7 to Team Selena Sturmay (3-3, Edmonton). As a result, Teams Black, Sturmay, and Lawes all remain in contention for the last playoff position heading into Wednesday, and even the 2-4 Team Skrlik has a mathematical chance to advance.

Also Tuesday night, Team Kate Cameron (1-5, St. Adolphe, Man.) earned its first victory of the week with an 8-3 win against Team Corryn Brown (1-6, Kamloops, B.C.).

The 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials continues on Wednesday with the final day of round-robin competition at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times Atlantic).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025trials/tickets.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2025trials/nouvelles.