Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson rebounds to book spot in Scotties final

Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson rebounded from last night’s loss with a commanding performance in the semifinal at the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

With a decisive 12-5 win over Alberta’s Team Selena Sturmay of Edmonton, Einarson’s team secured a place in the championship final later today at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Ont.

The turnaround was remarkable for the team from Gimli, Man.—skip Einarson, third/vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess, alternate Krysten Karwacki, and coach Reid Carruthers. Just last night, they gave up four points in the first end and spent the game trying to recover against Manitoba’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg.

Einarson and Lawes will meet for the third time this week in tonight’s final at 7 p.m. ET. Team Lawes dominated the previous matchups, defeating Einarson 9-4 in round-robin play and 10-2 in the Page 1v2 game to clinch a spot in the final.

“That’s curling. It happens all the time, and we just have to refocus,” Einarson said of those losses. “We’ve been in this situation before, many times. This team is strong, and we have each other’s backs no matter what. We just really came out tonight and played really well.”

Tonight’s game will decide not just the Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, but also who will represent Canada at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pharmasave, March 14–22 at WinSport Event Centre in Calgary.

Team Einarson curled 90 per cent collectively, and Einarson herself shot 88 per cent—well above her 45 per cent in the Page 1v2 game, where she faced a string of difficult shots and runbacks.

On Sunday afternoon, Canada blanked the first end, then set up a tap for three in the second to take an early lead. Einarson made routine draws to the button for deuces in the fourth and sixth ends, maintaining control of the scoreboard. Alberta’s Team Sturmay battled back in the eighth when Sturmay froze on the button and stole a point, narrowing the gap to two late in the game.

But Team Einarson responded with a double for five in the ninth, prompting Alberta to concede.

“Really proud of the girls for showing up all week. You don’t come to this event to lose. I just want to say thank you to the girls for playing as well as they did,” an emotional Sturmay said post-game. “At the end of the day, I think we need to go and debrief, reflect on it. The reality is, we are quite a young team. We’re about 10 years younger than them, so I think we need to take it with a grain of salt and celebrate the victories a little bit.”

Team Einarson brings extensive championship experience to the final. Since winning her first national title in 2020, Einarson has competed in nearly every Scotties final—missing only 2024—and has advanced via the semifinal five times in six appearances.

“We definitely don’t do things the easy way, this team. So we’ve been through the semifinal majority of the time,” Einarson said. “It’s nice to get our feet under us and get used to the ice instead of sitting around all day.”

Now in her eighth Scotties final, Sweeting holds the third-most appearances in the event’s history.

If Birchard wins the final, she will tie the all-time record for most Scotties championships won by a player, joining curling legends Colleen Jones, Jennifer Jones, and Jill Officer with six.

Burgess has appeared in the last three Scotties finals, twice with Jennifer Jones and once with Einarson, earning silver in each appearance.

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/.