Lawes celebrates 100th Scotties wins, eyes second Scotties title

Four years ago, Kaitlyn Lawes formed a team with the goal of reaching the pinnacle of curling. Although the journey took longer than expected, the team now finds itself competing on championship Sunday for a coveted Scotties Tournament of Hearts title.

Lawes, who throws fourth stones and vice-skips, along with skip/third Selena Njegovan, second Laura Walker, lead Kristin Gordon, alternate Erin Pincott and coach Marcel Rocque defeated Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson 10-2 in the Page 1v2 game on Saturday evening.

“This team’s been through a lot over these last four years,” Lawes said. “Becoming moms together, and I feel like we’ve been really close and just haven’t been able to find the success, but we’ve hung in there. I feel that’s huge for a team to be able to stick through those tough times, and we’ve really supported each other in those moments, and I’m just so proud.”

This week at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Ont., everything has clicked for the Winnipeg-based team. After sweeping the round robin, Team Lawes secured two playoff victories to earn a spot in Sunday’s final, scheduled for 7 p.m. (all times Eastern).

Team Lawes controlled the game from start to finish, continually forcing Team Einarson to attempt challenging shots in every end.

In the first end, Einarson attempted a runback to remove multiple Team Lawes counters, but succeeded in removing only one. This set up Manitoba’s Njegovan for a draw for four. Einarson managed a draw against two in the second, but gave up a deuce in the third after missing an upweight hit and ticking a rock in the house, allowing Team Lawes another draw. Team Lawes then added single-point steals in the fourth and fifth ends.

Einarson and her team from Gimli, Man., fell behind early and struggled to mount a comeback.

“I couldn’t buy [a shot] either, but when you get down early like that — I had some really difficult shots that I had to make — it’s really hard to claw back against a team like that,” Einarson said. “We just tried to figure out the ice and what it was doing and found that it was maybe a little bit straighter. It’s just how it goes sometimes.”

This victory also marked Lawes’s 100th career Scotties win. The 37-year-old skip, who made her debut in 2011, has competed at 12 Canadian women’s championships, winning two silver and three bronze medals, with her lone gold coming in 2015. She now hopes to add a second gold on Sunday.

“I guess I’ve been around for a long time — showing my age a little bit,” Lawes joked. “But really special to be able to get to a final with this team, and hopefully we can find one more win. Make it 101.”

It marks the second time Njegovan and Gordon will compete in a Scotties final, after earning silver in 2018 with a team skipped by Einarson. Walker has earned one bronze in her career from 2021 and will compete in her first Scotties final.

“We’ve been close so much, and it just seems like sometimes in curling, sometimes you’re on the wrong side of the inch,” Njegovan said. “It just seems like everything just clicked this week and all the hard work we put in just kind of came together. It’s been kind of a magical run so far.”

Canada’s Team Einarson returns to the ice Sunday at 1 p.m. for the semifinal against Alberta’s Team Selena Sturmay, who defeated Nova Scotia’s Team Christina Black earlier today. The winner will face Team Lawes in the final that evening.

The Scotties champion will represent Canada at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pharmasave, from March 14-22 at WinSport Event Centre in Calgary.

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/. 

 This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2026scotties/nouvelles/.