Dolan, Birt open with wins at P.E.I. Scotties Tournament of Hearts

SUMMERSIDE -- Defending champion Suzanne Birt and Kim Dolan of the Charlottetown Curling Club won the opening games at the 2009 P.E.I. Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Thursday night.
Dolan jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two ends en route to a 12-3 victory over Karen Currie of the Cornwall Curling Club and Birt downed Donna Butler of Cornwall 7-4 at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club. Robyn MacPhee of Charlottetown rounds out the five-rink field for the P.E.I. women's curling championship and had an opening-round bye.
"It was a nice start to get used to the ice conditions and you know how much curl and what you can do on the sheet of ice," said Dolan, who scored five points in the first end.
"Things just went our way," added the veteran skip. "We picked up the ice fast, we had our draw weight and that really is what capped it off.
"Any time in the first end when you have to draw against a number of stones it's quite difficult. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't want to be doing it."
Dolan, who took a 9-2 lead into the fifth-end break, said her entire team, including third stone Kathy O'Rourke, second stone Nancy Cameron and lead Trisha Affleck, all made contributions to the five-ender.
"I think all the girls had at least one of their rocks in the house," said Dolan. "It's a really nice start."

Sixth end key
After a back-and-forth first five ends, Birt generated a three-ender with the hammer in the sixth end to take a 5-3 lead.
"There were rocks lined up for a run-back and it was pretty straight forward as long as you hit it," said Birt, who has skipped five of the last six P.E.I. women's curling champions.
After a blanked seventh end, Butler scored one in the eighth and Birt hit and stayed for two in the ninth end to close out the scoring.
"I could see all of it and there was a guard, but I just had to make sure I hit the broom," said Birt, who praised Butler's rink.
"They played well," she said. "We hung in there and took advantage of a few chances that we had."
Birt's teammates are third stone Shelly Bradley, second stone Leslie MacDougall and lead Stefanie Clark. Marie Molyneau, third stone; Melissa Andrews, second stone, and Carolyn Coulson round out Butler's rink.
Round-robin play continues through Saturday evening. The Page playoffs begin Sunday at 7 p.m., with the semifinal Monday at 2 p.m. The winner-take-all championship game is Monday at 7 p.m. The winning rink will represent P.E.I. at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Victoria, B.C., from Feb. 21 to March 1.

jpsports@journalpioneer.com