Canada jumped out to a commanding 8-2 lead after five ends and then held on for a 10-8 victory over Sweden in the morning draw today (Wednesday) at the women’s world curling championship in Prince George.
The Canadian team, skipped by Kerri Einarson, wasted no time in taking control, scoring three in the first and stealing one more in both the second and third ends.
Sweden and their skip Anna Hasselborg got as close as 9-8 after nine but Canada got one point in the 10th without Einarson having to throw her last rock.
Einarson curled 74% while Hasselborg, the 2018 Olympic Gold medalist, was at 71%.
“I was not feeling comfortable until the game was over,” said Einarson.
“I had a couple of opportunities where I just was a little tight and just didn’t quite get it back enough. I thought everyone was throwing them really good, and we just had a couple maybe sloppy ends.”
The linescore and game stats are right here.
Canada improved to 5-2 and will get a forfeit win tonight over Scotland which will give them a 6-2 record.
Scotland was forced to withdraw and returned home after two games due to a COVID-19 outbreak on the team.
Canada will still use the ice for a practice session during the time they were supposed to play.
“We’re going to probably re-invent the wheel a little bit for how we do our practice session, and then we have half an hour after where we’ll probably focus on scouting the sheet for a future game, ” said Canadian coach Reid Carruthers.
It was just the second loss in eight games for Sweden.
Three other games were played this morning, defending champion Switzerland remained the only unbeaten team by blasting the Czech Republic 10-3, the Americans crushed winless Turkey 12-5 and Denmark came from behind to hand Korea its first loss 8-7.
Denmark scored one in the 10th and stole the winning point in the extra end.
Switzerland tops the standings at 7-0 followed by Korea at 6-1 and Sweden at 6-2.
Canada, the United States, and Denmark are tied for 4th at 5-2 with Japan 4-3.
The full standings can be found here.
The full schedule and results are right here.
There are three games today in the 2:00 p.m draw and three more tonight at 7:00.
Canada will next take to the ice on Thursday against the USA at 9:00 a.m. and Korea at 7:00 p.m.
The Canadians will close out their round-robin on Friday against Germany at 9:00 a.m and the Czech Republic at 7:00 p.m.
The top six teams make the playoffs.
Qualification games are scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 in the afternoon with the semi-finals Saturday night at 7:00.
Medal games go Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (for bronze) and 4:00 p.m. (for gold).