Team Homan claims women’s final opener at Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials

One victory is all that separates Rachel Homan’s Ottawa team from wearing the Maple Leaf at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Team Homan, the two-time reigning Canadian and world champion, was a 5-4 winner over Team Christina Black of Halifax Friday afternoon at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax in the opening game of the best-of-three women’s final series at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing.

Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown and coach Heather Nedohin can wrap up the Trials title Saturday with a win that would complete the series sweep, and earn nomination to the Canadian Olympic Committee to be Team Canada at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

“More of the same,” said Homan. “We’ve been in these situations before, in finals and big moments. We’re out there supporting each other with every shot, every miss — just trying to learn and trying to get better.”

Game 2 in the series is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. (all times Atlantic) and Game 3, if necessary, would be played Sunday at 1 p.m.

Team Homan took the early lead with a single in the second end when Homan made a delicate outturn tap to push a Team Black stone off the button.

Stolen single points in the third and fourth ends — Black was light with her draw to the full four-foot in the third, and missed wide on an angle-raise takeout for two in the fourth — made it 3-0 for Team Homan and to take some of the life out of a pro-Black crowd.

Team Black — rounded out by vice-skip Jill Brothers, front-enders Karlee Everist, Jenn Baxter and Marlee Powers, and coach Stuart MacLean — hit the scoreboard in the fifth when the skipper drew to the side of the button looking at three Team Homan counters.

Hopes were raised more in the sixth when Homan’s draw for the game’s first deuce was light.

Team Black responded with a single of its own in the seventh, and then got the crowd back into it with a stolen single in the eighth when Homan was just wide with her double takeout to score two.

Team Homan restored the two-point lead with a single in the ninth, and in a wild-and-wooly 10th end that had most of the stones in play — reminiscent of the men’s semifinal between Team Matt Dunstone and Team Mike McEwen on Thursday night — Black had a very tough, but available, shot for the victory, but didn’t quite have the weight to push Homan’s shot out of the four-foot far enough for the win.

“We kept it within striking distance and going into the 10th, (we were) just hoping we’d have an opportunity to score two or score three, and we were setting it up pretty good,” said Black. “I just don’t think my shot was possible unless I could throw it a lot harder. We gave it a run, though.

“We don’t give up, we’re resilient, we find a way to scratch,” she added. “We said, ‘Let’s scratch and crawl our way back into this thing, guys.’ That’s what we told each other at the fifth-end break. Let’s just be annoying, you know, just don’t give up, just annoy them and see what happens. That’s what we did and we were able to bring it down to the last rock.”

Even with the home crowd cheering on Team Black, and ice conditions changing as the game went on, Team Homan yet again found a way to win.

“I think that we’ve been in a lot of close games,” said Miskew. “It just shows that we stay in games. The loss that we had this week (to Team Kayla Skrlik of Calgary), we gave up three in nine and took three to tie and forced her to make a last shot.

“We’re never going to give up out there. We were definitely a little bit confused at times (on Friday) and I think that we’ll be able to make a good note of the ice map and what ends the frost starts to creep in and hopefully we’ll have a little bit more of a plan for tomorrow.”

The best-of-three men’s final between Team Brad Jacobs of Calgary and Team Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg kicks off Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025trials/tickets.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2025trials/nouvelles.