New Brunswick rink curls their way to a third-place finish at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts

Team Crawford curled their hearts out Andrea Crawford’s New Brunswick Rink curled their way to a third-place finish at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts

It was a Scottie's Tournament of Hearts to remember for 10-time New Brunswick champion Andrea Crawford and her teammates.

The Fredericton rink finished a career best third place at the event, narrowly missing out on the finals.

"We are thrilled with that result. It was tough to finish the tournament losing two games and the one-two game was really a hard one for us to lose, but the fact that we've come away with a bronze medal this year, I guess there's just so many challenges to get to this point,” said Andrea Crawford, Skip for Team New Brunswick.

The national women's curling championship tournament began on Jan. 28 in Thunder Bay, Ont. and ended Sunday.

"We feel really good about the week that we had, a lot of pride, and we're excited to go back and share that with all our fans and our family. We've just had amazing support from back home," Crawford said.

The Capital Winter Club, their home ice, was cheering the team on every step of the way.

"It was exceptionally stressful because every game was close, so we were on the edge of our seats waiting to see what would happen, and I think I was as stressed watching them as I would be watching my kids play,” said Jaime Watson, manager of the Capital Winter Club.

To put the team’s accomplishments in perspective, the last time a New Brunswick rink reached the Scotties playoffs was back in 1991.

"It's been an amazing run. It's not a surprise to a lot of us who have been around that team the last few years. They work really hard, they work harder than anybody out there and so people are kind of shocked with how things went,” said James Grattan, a curler based in Oromocto, N.B.

"Commentators say ‘Oh it's such a Cinderella story for New Brunswick,’ but we've watched them, we've seen the amount of work they put into it, so we knew they could do it. So it's good for our members that are competitive to see that if they put the work in they can do it too,” Watson said.