Manitoba-Peterson, Nova Scotia-Black, Alberta-Sturmay clinch playoff spots at Scotties Tournament of Hearts

Playoff fever gripped the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Wednesday afternoon.

With two Pool B draws remaining at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, the top three teams have already clinched playoff spots for the final weekend.

Three of four afternoon results fell into place for Manitoba’s Team Beth Peterson (6-0; Winnipeg), Nova Scotia’s Team Christina Black (6-1; Halifax) and Alberta’s Team Selena Sturmay (5-1; Edmonton) to secure their berths.

Peterson’s team opened the clinching sequence with an 8-4 win over Team Kayla Skrlik (3-3; Calgary). After a seesaw start, Team Peterson — skip Kelsey Calvert, third Beth Peterson, second Katherine Remillard, lead Melissa Gordon-Kurz, and coach Jill Officer — scored three in the sixth end and stole one in the seventh to remain the lone unbeaten team in Pool B.

“I’ve been feeling really comfortable with the ice personally, and I know Kelsey is too,” said Peterson. “Our front-end is doing a really good job managing rocks for us when we’re coming down to those (shots) near the end of an end.”

Peterson is relishing the chance to play in front of a big closing-weekend crowd, though two key games remain.

“We’ve got some work to do, but I’m looking forward to the playoff atmosphere,” Peterson said. “We kind of got teased into having a huge, crazy crowd at our first game on Saturday afternoon, so I’m really hoping that comes back again, because it was really fun.”

That win paved the way for Nova Scotia’s Black, third/vice-skip Jill Brothers, front end Jennifer Baxter, Karlee Everist and Marlee Powers, and coach Stuart MacLean. They posted a 6-3 victory over Prince Edward Island’s Team Amanda Power (1-5; Summerside), scoring two in the eighth, forcing P.E.I. to one in the ninth, and running them out of rocks in the 10th.

It marks Black’s fifth Scotties playoff appearance in seven tries.

“Before the week, we sat down and said where we want to be through the round robin? We said we don’t want our last game to be a must-win game. The last few years, it has been that for us, a must-win, a need some help type of help situation. It’s nice to know it’s not that,” Black said.

While the final piece of the equation was an 11-6 win for Alberta’s Team Selena Sturmay (5-1; Edmonton) over Newfoundland & Labrador’s Team Mackenzie Mitchell (1-5; St. John’s), it was the first of the three results confirmed on the ice. That left Sturmay, third/vice-skip Danielle Schmiemann, second Dezaray Hawes, lead Paige Papley and coach Ted Appelman watching the rest of the action unfold.

“At the beginning, we knew we just had to go out there, play well, win our game,” said Sturmay, who won bronze in her debut appearance at the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. “Then after (the game) was wrapped up, we were definitely all in on the other games going on.”

Team Sturmay capitalized with hammer, scoring pairs in the first, third, seventh and ninth ends, and putting up three in the fifth.

The win ensured Sturmay could finish no worse than tied for the final playoff spot with Northern Ontario’s Team Krista Scharf (3-3; Thunder Bay) and Team Skrlik, but Sturmay holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over both.

Teams will battle for playoff positioning in the final two round-robin draws Thursday. A top-two finish in each pool provides an extra chance to reach the Page playoffs. The top two advance to Friday afternoon’s Page 1-2 qualifier, with the winner moving on and the loser facing a third-place team Friday night for a Page 3-4 berth.

Elsewhere, New Brunswick’s Team Mélodie Forsythe (2-4; Fredericton) defeated Nunavut’s Team Julia Weagle (1-6; Iqaluit) 10-5.

The 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues Wednesday with a draw at 7:00 p.m. (all times Eastern)

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/. 

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. 

For ticket information for the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, go to www.curling.ca/2026cotties/tickets/.