The first trip to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts didn’t go how Moose Jaw’s Penny Barker and her rink had planned, but that doesn’t mean they’re coming home disappointed.

“It was an amazing experience, I’m really sad that it’s over,” said Barker after wrapping up the Scotties with a 9-5 loss to Prince Edward Island on Friday.  

“What an honour to go and represent your province.  I thought we played really well all week and it could have just as easily been six wins on the board, we were so close in all of our games and I’m really proud of how the girls played all week.”

The Barker rink, which also features third Deanna Doig, second Lorraine Schneider and lead Danielle Sicinski, finished the Scotties with a 1-10 record, but they had three extra end losses and were right in most of their 11 games.

Saskatchewan’s lone win came on the second-last day of competition when they topped Nova Scotia, 10-4, to get on the board.

“What a sweet feeling to get that monkey off our back,” said Barker.  “We were so close in so many games, like the day before we had two games that we played so well in and could have won.  It felt so great to get that W that we’d worked so hard to get.”

Unlike many of the teams at the Scotties, the Barker rink doesn’t curl on the World Curling Tour, getting most of their games in at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre and at bonspiels around the province.

Barker said that getting to experience that high level curling was a great learning experience for their group.

“With how we played and how we were right there with all the teams, it’s just at this level it’s that extra couple of shots every game that makes the difference, these teams will make you pay for it, so you just have to be that much sharper,” said Barker.

“Every time you play on arena ice you’re going to be better, so we’ll really learn from this experience and we’ll play better the next time that we get there.”

Getting that first taste of the Scotties and experiencing competing for the national championship has put some extra fire into the Barker rink as they hope for a return next year.

“We want to get back here so bad, I didn’t want to leave the ice today, we could have played another week,” said Barker.  “We’re hungry to get back there, play better and finish a lot higher.”

While they didn’t have the success that they’d hoped for on the ice, Barker said that they took in everything that the Scotties had to offer in St. Catherines, Ontario.

They took a trip to Niagara Falls as a team and enjoyed getting the chance to interact with fans from all over Canada.

“We took everything within in the arena, just feeling what it’s like to be there,” she said.  “We took it all in, there was autograph sessions and we met a lot of different fans, a lot of Saskatchewan people that live in Ontario and we’re cheering us on, so that was great to have a lot more fans than we brought with us.”

The Barker rink plans to take in everything from the last week and start working towards their goal of a return to the Scotties.

“It’s an amazing event, a dream come true to go to it, we had plans to do better than what we did, but we’re holding our heads high and we’ve got to take from it and learn,” said Barker.  “It only makes you hungrier to get back.”

Rachel Homan won her third Scotties title as she led Team Ontario to an 8-6 extra end win over Michelle Englot and Team Manitoba in the final on Sunday night.

Chelsea Carey and Team Canada captured bronze with a 7-4 win over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville.