The look of dejection on Kerri Einarson’s face said it all.
After building up a 7-5 lead after eight ends, the Canadian skip and her team from Manitoba stumbled down the stretch, dropping a stunning 8-7 decision in an extra end to South Korea.
The Thursday night game was played in front of a tournament-best 1,734 fans in Prince George at the world women’s curling championship.
Korean skip Eun-Jung Kim converted with the hammer in the ninth, Einarson subsequently missed consecutive game-winning shots in ends ten and eleven to snap a five-game winning streak.
“I had a shot to win it in the tenth and it just ran straight. It was maybe a hair up but I was confident going into the eleventh and we just had a sloppy extra end.”
Canada Skip @KEinarson of @EinarsonTeam chats with the media after 8-7 loss to South Korea @worldcurling @CurlingCanada #WWCC2022 #curling #CityOfPG #PrinceGeorge #northernbc pic.twitter.com/Nn2RHq6QDG
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 25, 2022
Canada (7-3) was on even terms with South Korea (7-3) at the fifth end break tied 4-4 and then traded singles in the sixth and seventh.
Einarson struggled mightily with her draw weight converting on 56% of her opportunities.
Despite the loss, Einarson told the media the host nation will need to have a short memory heading into the final day of the round-robin.
“We control our own destiny. We are playing well. We just started off slow but we picked it up and we’ll just park this one.”
Even with a few big makes, Canadian third Val Sweeting curled at 73% tied for the lowest rating among all players in the game with Korean second Cho Hi Kim.
“It wasn’t our best game overall. They were really good at applying pressure on us. We did get the three in eight to take control of the game and we just had a super sloppy extra end and let it slip.”
Val Sweeting of @EinarsonTeam chats with the media following an 8-7 loss to South Korea @CurlingCanada @worldcurling #WWCC2022 #curling #CityOfPG #PrinceGeorge #northernbc #sports pic.twitter.com/WeTGXRNFYc
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 25, 2022
The host nation plays two key games today (Friday); this morning at 9:00 against Germany (5-5) followed by an evening tilt with the Czech Republic (2-8).
Canada needs just one win to clinch a playoff spot – a scenario they were not made aware of ahead of their contest against South Korea.
“We didn’t know that we would have had a playoff spot if we had won so that was not in our minds at all but it’s still in our hands,” stated Sweeting.
After defeating the United States 9-3 in the morning draw, their southern neighbours did them a favour in the evening by dispatching Sweden 5-4.
Cory Christiensen’s last rock take-out in the tenth was enough to improve USA’s record to 6-4.
“Our last couple of games were not our best execution wise, so tonight (Thursday) we were able to put lots of shots together and it felt good to get back to ourselves again,” said Christiensen.
After Thursday’s action: Switzerland is 10-0 and has clinched first and an automatic bye into the semi-finals, Sweden is 8-3 while Canada and South Korea are tied for third at 7-3.
Denmark, Japan and the USA are 6-4 followed by Germany and Norway at 5-5.
The top six teams make the playoffs (with the top two automatically advancing to the semis).
The Americans will improve to 7-4 in the morning draw today due to a forfeit win against Scotland, which will then set up a potentially key matchup against Denmark tonight at 7:00.
The Danes play Norway this morning.
In other action, Denmark upended Italy by a 7-5 score while Turkey earned its first-ever win at the world women’s championship dispatching the Czech Republic 7-5.
Qualification games will be played Saturday at 1:00 p.m. with the semi-finals to follow Saturday night at 7:00 at CN Centre.
Medal games hit the ice Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (for bronze) and 4:00 p.m. (for gold).
The full standings can be found here.
The full schedule and results are right here.
– with files from Hartley Miller