Chelsea Carey has become a big shot on the Alberta curling landscape.
Her claim of a second provincial title Sunday is proof of that.
So, too, was her shot to secure her rink’s trip to the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
“We were struggling with the ice a little bit, and (we were given) a chance,” Carey told Sportsnet post-game of a ninth-end triple-takeout to top Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 8-3 in the championship finale at the Stettler Curling Club.
Until then, it had been a tight finale, with Rocque and her Edmonton Saville Sports Centre squad looking for revenge after losing the Page Playoff 1-2 game 10-2 to Carey and The Glencoe Club team one night earlier.
Rocque was the only rink to count more than one — with two in the fifth end — until the deciding ninth of the championship draw, with Carey also defending against a multi end for Rocque in the eight.
“It feels great,” Carey told Sportsnet. “These finals are always so full of pressure because you want so badly to get back (to the Scotties). It’s almost like the more you go to the Scotties, the more you want to go.
Carey’s win means she’ll make her fourth appearance at the nationals after representing Manitoba in 2014 and Alberta in 2016 and then returning as Team Canada in 2017 following her win of the Scotties crown the year before in Grande Prairie.
Meanwhile, Sarah Wilkes captured her second Alberta title as Carey’s third, while the rink’s second and lead, Dana Ferguson and Rachelle Brown respectively, are each primed for a third Scotties trip.
Together, however, this is their first trip to the nationals, since they formed this past off-season.
“We felt we were close all season, and we couldn’t quite make it across the finish line,” Carey said. “And we made the switch to bring Sarah back in the house and Rachel was back (from maternity leave) and feeling settled in.
“And it just started to click last event at the Canadian Open. And then here all week, we felt really good.
Earlier Sunday, Rocque trounced Jodi Marthaller, of Calgary’s Garrison Curling Club, in the 12-6 semifinal, as the Edmonton side counted three in each of the first, second and fourth ends to take an early stranglehold.
But Rocque couldn’t find the offence against a defensively solid Carey crew in the evening finale.
Nobody could solve Carey all week, as she rolled to five straight wins, including a key A-final edge of defending champion Casey Scheidegger, who was eventually eliminated by Marthaller in C-side action Saturday.
The last Alberta team to win the provincial women’s title in consecutive years was the Valerie Sweeting squad in 2014 and ’15.
But now Carey has two in her pocket as she guns to repeat her Scotties golden performance of three years ago.
And given her resume, she’s more than capable of carrying into Sydney the newfound confidence of a perfect provincials.
“This is a big one — last year really hurt,” said Carey of losing the Alberta semifinal to Shannon Kleibrink and then losing the Scotties wildcard game to Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson. “We had such a great season, and then we couldn’t quite win provincials and we lost the wildcard game (to miss the last-chance Scotties invite). We were dancing all around it. It was the first time in a while watching the Scotties on TV, and I really didn’t like it too much.