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The Scotties Tournament of Hearts has a repeat champion for the first time in seven years.
Kerri Einarson’s Manitoba rink, playing as Team Canada after winning the tournament one year ago, won its second consecutive Scotties after an exciting 9-7 victory against Rachel Homan’s Team Ontario on Sunday.
Team Canada seemed to have the edge over Team Ontario for most of the final, especially after picking up three points in the fifth end to take a 5-3 lead.
However, down 7-5 in the ninth end, Homan and company played a fantastic end to steal two points, tying it up at seven apiece heading into the 10th and final end.
With just one rock left for each team in that 10th end, Homan had a chance to draw to the button to force Einarson into making a difficult shot for the win.
However, poor ice conditions made it a very difficult shot and Homan put too much weight on the rock.
It slid just past the centre button, which gave Team Canada two points and back-to-back Scotties titles.
CHAMPIONS! Canada's @EinarsonTeam wins the #STOH2021 pic.twitter.com/JXtt1crNpP
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 1, 2021
"It means the absolute world to be able to repeat," Einarson said after the victory. "It's something that is very hard to do."
Meanwhile, Homan said she was unbelievably proud of the girls on Team Ontario for battling so hard all week.
"We had a chance right to the end, but it didn't go our way,” the two-time Scotties champion said.
"I pushed as hard as I could and went as far as we were able to go as a team. It was a phenomenal team effort to make this happen this week."
We’d be remiss if we didn’t take this opportunity to mention that Homan led her rink to the finals while eight months pregnant, which is an amazing accomplishment!
Sunday started with four teams still in contention after the Championship Pool took place over Friday and Saturday.
Team Alberta, led by Laura Walker, knocked off Jennifer Jones’ Manitoba rink to earn a semi-final berth against Team Canada.
However, Einarson was too much for Walker’s rink to handle, as Team Canada won that semi-final 9-3 to end Team Alberta’s impressive run at the tournament.
With another successful Scotties Tournament of Hearts now in the rear-view mirror, the Canadian curling world will turn its attention to the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier.
The men’s national championship will kick off from the Calgary bubble on Friday night.