Page Playoff 3 vs 4

I expected this to be the premier game of the day: the round robin between Canada and Quebec had been excellent, Bélisle was on a high, and Jenn always loved to have rocks in play. In fact, it was a blow-out. Luck was on Canada’s side: their shots cleared guards by mere centimeters, while Quebec’s overcurled by the same amount. Jenn actually danced to the music after an end, and so she should. It was apparent after the third end that Quebec didn’t have a chance: it was 7-1! At the fifth end break, Kleibrink’s team were introduced onto the ice and bowed twice to a happy ovation. I hope they were happy too.

After the break Bélisle’s luck continued and I became concerned that perhaps Canada would get over-confident for their next game. I was surprised to see them in the playoffs, truth be told, after all the near-losses all week. Jenn again took off her coat, very uncharacteristic of her, must have been warm (or over-excited). Bélisle made her final shot well and then retired after the 7^th end. Jenn was very smiley and accidentally hit one of the Quebec players with her broom. The whole Team Canada was joking with their Quebec counterparts through most of the game… too bad they couldn’t always be that relaxed.

At one point the score was 10-3, but the 0 fell off the home-end scoreboard to read 3-1 and both teams cracked up as they noticed it. The scorekeeper got a resounding boo when he went to replace the 0.

I felt bad for both teams: it was obvious that the crowd wasn’t really watching the game, and truthfully neither was I: I was looking around the crowd and pointing out Teams NB, Newfoundland (big applause by the audience when Heather was shown on-screen), Saskatchewan, and NWT to my seatmate Jane. We also saw ‘Oscar’ from Corner Gas and the arrival of Mike Harris and Joan McCusker (who weren’t watching the game either!). It was a long walk home through the silent streets.