It's a new-look Team Galusha that will be heading to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts next month in Thunder Bay, Ont., and it will also be one last ride for the skipper of the ship.
Kerry Galusha and her rink of Shona Barbour, Megan Koehler, Sydney Galusha and Ella Skauge won the right to represent the NWT at the Canadian women's curling championship by beating Betti Delorey and her rink out of the Hay River Curling Club on Sunday. Both rinks were the only ones to enter, meaning just a best-of-five was needed to crown the champion. Galusha secured the title with a 12-0 win in the fourth draw to win the series, 3-1.
You'll notice something about that last scoreline in that Delorey defeated Galusha in one of those contests. That came in the opening draw on Jan. 17 as Delorey won, 11-6. Playing without last rock advantage in the opening end, Delorey managed to put up a steal of two in the first end and followed that with a steal of three in the second. Another stolen single in the third end gave Delorey a 6-0 lead at that point.
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Galusha got two back in the fourth, but Delorey scored another in the fifth and stole another one in the sixth to pile on the pressure. Galusha scored three with the hammer in the seventh and stole a single in the eighth to get it back to 8-6, but three in the ninth for Delorey was good enough for Galusha to shake hands after that and hand Delorey the win.
The win was the first time a team had beaten Galusha at a territorial playdown since 2014 and Galusha said it wasn't the sharpest game ever.
"I didn't come out sharp," she said. "I'm battling another injury - I hurt myself on Jan. 6, so it's been a tough month - but my team was awesome behind me. I think that loss woke us up and we ended up playing a lot better after that. Betti and her team played amazing. They didn't miss many shots."
The second draw on Jan. 18 saw the same exact result as the first with the final score being 11-6, only this time in favour of Galusha. Draw three also went Galusha's way by a score of 11-4 and Galusha was able to close it out in fourth draw on Sunday with a 12-0 win, stealing all 12 points on her way to victory and the title.
This version of Team Galusha is much different from the one that we saw over the past few years. Barbour and Koehler are still there, but the addition of Galusha's daughter, who's just 15, and Skauge, who's 16, means this will be one of the youngest teams to play at the national senior women's level.
"Sydney was, by far, the best player on our team," said Galusha. "She was making everything. It's just really good to see the young guns, as we call them, get to play and they really kept us in it."
Will those young guns be able to handle the pressure of a Scotties Tournament of Hearts?
Galusha said it's going to be tough simply due to the fact that they haven't played a lot of games this season, but 10-end games will be a lot.
"We went to Beaumont (Alta.) for a spiel and we played five games there and got to the semifinals," she said. "It's going to be tough because we'll be playing all the top teams. We know we'll be in tough, but we'll go down and hopefully hold our own and try to keep the games close."
The trick at the Scotties, she added, is finding draw weight on arena ice.
"That can make all the difference and for the next four weeks, we'll be preparing," she said. "Megan, Shona and I have tons of experience with (arena ice) and Sydney and Ella have played juniors on arena ice as well, but every game will be a battle."
Galusha also confirmed that this will be her swan song when it comes to the Scotties and getting to play in her last national with her daughter is something she thought she would never get to do.
"It's really special," she said. "Sydney is such a good curler, way better than me, and she's going to be a great curler. I just wanted to get there once with Sydney and I'm good to end my career on this note."
