CALGARY — Can anyone stop Rachel Homan?
Wednesday afternoon at the women’s curling nationals in Calgary was supposed to be a stiff test for the 34-year-old skip from Ottawa.
She made it look like a walk in the park instead.
Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Rachel Homan has been running roughshod over her opponents at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Homan jumped out to an early 7-0 lead against B.C.’s Clancy Grandy (5-2) en route to a convincing 10-3 victory.
With the win, the No. 1-ranked team in the country improved to 6-0 to clinch one of the three playoff berths out of Pool B.
This week’s dominance should come as no surprise as Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes are an astounding 44-5 in the 2023-24 campaign.
To put that into perspective, Jennifer Jones (5-1) — who lost 7-5 to Homan late Tuesday — is 40-22 and Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson is 30-18.
“You need to win at the right time, and we’ve got to keep going and can’t look too much in the past,” said Homan. “We’re just focused on what we’re doing here.”
You can’t blame Homan for not being in the mood to pat herself on the back just yet. She won her lone Scotties crown in 2017 — and captured both the world title and Canadian Olympic trials that year — before going on to lose three straight national finals between 2019-21. The 2020 and 2021 defeats came against Einarson.
To get back to top of the mountain, Homan recruited Fleury — a Sudbury, Ont., product who skipped out of Manitoba from 2018-22 — to hold the broom but throw third.
They bowed out in the 2023 Scotties championship round semifinal.
With Homan back to calling the shots and Fleury, 37, more comfortable in her new role, the team is rolling.
Homan shot 100 per cent against Grandy and Fleury was almost as impressive at 95 per cent.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said Homan when asked if this is the best she’s felt in her career. “Personally, I feel that I can make all the shots and I’m feeling really confident.”
All four members of Team Homan are in the top two at their position so far this week.
“I have one of the best ice readers in the world setting the broom, so, I’m just trusting in her and learning from all my teammates,” said Fleury. “I’m enjoying the role. I like how there’s a lot of communication. Sometimes when you’re playing skip, you can be on your own a bit and feel a little isolated. I like how in this role you get to talk to everyone and get to learn from them. It’s a position where you get a little bit of everything which I like.”
Homan credits Fleury’s game as one of the main reasons why they’ve managed to win five events this season, including last month’s Canadian Open when they knocked off powerhouse Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in the championship game.
This year when playing Manitoba’s big four — Jones, Einarson, Kate Cameron and Kaitlyn Lawes — they’re 12-1.
Jones beat Cameron (3-3) 10-5 Wednesday to also lock up a playoff berth in Pool B. Heading into last night’s late draw — which featured Lawes (3-3) challenging Einarson (5-1) — Pool A was topped by Alberta’s Selena Sturmay (6-0), Einarson, and Saskatchewan’s Skylar Ackerman (4-3).
“(Fleury) is more comfortable seeing my lines, I’m more comfortable seeing her lines. It’s just awesome to watch her throw,” said Homan.
“She’s a phenomenal shooter and always there to make the big one for us. It’s just been a huge addition to our team.”
Despite being one of the best in the women’s game, Fleury has never medalled at the Scotties. The biggest moment of her career took place at the 2021 Olympic trials when her East St. Paul rink featuring Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe, and Kristin MacCuish (Njegovan and MacCuish now play with Lawes) went undefeated in round-robin action before giving up a steal in the extra end of the final to lose 6-5 to Jones.
Fleury’s itching to get that first taste of gold and hopes to check that box on Sunday.
“It would be a dream come true, of course. This is what we’ve been working towards, and we feel prepared,” said Fleury. “Anything can happen, obviously, in a week like this. Anyone can get hot, but we feel like we’ve put in all the preparation that we could to try to come out on top.”
taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca
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Taylor Allen
Reporter
Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of…
