Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson on to next round at Scotties

Saskatchewan is off to the championship round at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Sherry Anderson’s Saskatoon Nutana rink won both of its games Thursday at the Canadian women’s curling championship in Calgary to finish pool play with a 6-2 record.

Anderson defeated British Columbia’s Corryn Brown 8-7 in Thursday’s morning draw and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Sarah Hill 9-3 in the final round-robin draw in the evening.

Anderson finished in first place in Pool B. The top four teams in each of the two pools advance to the championship round, which is to begin Friday.

Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones (6-2), Laurie St-Georges of Quebec (6-2) and the Chelsea Carey-skipped Wild Card 1 team (5-3) also moved on out of Pool B.

Ontario’s Rachel Homan (7-1), Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson (7-1), wild-card entry Beth Peterson (5-3) and Alberta’s Laura Walker (5-3) advanced from Pool A.

The teams’ records from the preliminary round will carry over into the two-day championship round. Each team will play four games against teams that qualified from the other preliminary-round pool.

The top three teams after championship pool play then will advance to Sunday’s playoffs. The top seed goes straight to the evening final and the second- and third-place teams will meet in an afternoon semifinal.

The Hearts winner will get a berth in the Tim Hortons Curling Trials and earn $100,000 of the $300,000 total purse. The champion will also return to the 2022 Scotties as Team Canada.

If the recently cancelled women’s world championship is rescheduled for later this season, the Hearts winner will represent Canada.

The March 5-14 Tim Hortons Brier will be the next event to be held in the spectator-free bubble in Calgary. In total, the Canada Olympic Park venue will host six bonspiels through late April.

— With files from The Canadian Press