Canada back at full strength

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This article was published 22/03/2012 (5161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Jessica Mair was back, and so was Team Canada’s comfort zone at the WCF Ford World Women’s Curling Championship.

The 27-year-old second for Heather Nedohin’s Edmonton foursome missed both games on Tuesday at the Enmax Centre after being knocked around by a nasty stomach issue, and was replaced by alternate Amy Nixon as Canada split its games.

But on Wednesday, Mair came back despite not having eaten a full meal in nearly 48 hours and played a key role in a Canadian sweep of its Wednesday assignments, beating the surprising South Koreans skipped by Ji-Sun Kim 7-5 in the morning draw, then following up with a tidy 5-4 win over Germany’s Melanie Robillard.

That left the Canadians with a 7-2 record, assured of at least a tiebreaker berth, and a tie for first place with South Korea and Sweden after Wednesday’s late draw. The Canadian rink had Wednesday night off.

“I feel great,” said a smiling Mair. “It feels good to have the four of us back together. I think Heather feels better about the routines that we do. Each of us has a job to do and it’s just nice to get back into the groove. I think just being out there and making shots and feeling the momentum from the crowd, it just helps. I still feel kind of the same way (a little tired and weak), but I’ll go have a good dinner, a good rest and I’ll be back (on Thursday).”

Mair came back with shooting performances of 79 per cent in the win over Korea and 90 per cent against the Germans.

“Amy is just a fantastic fifth. I mean, I’ve always tried to strive to be a player like Amy. So when she came in, we had no doubt we had a great player coming in,” said third Beth Iskiw. “But it changes the dynamic of the team, it changes the communication. We play all season with Jess, so it’s not the same. Jess never mentioned anything about being sick today. I don’t know how she felt but she played awesome and swept her heart out. After what she went through (Tuesday)? She was awesome.”

More important for Team Canada was the simple feeling that it had found the same kind of vibe it developed late in the round robin at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Red Deer, Alta., and carried into a memorable playoff run.

“Good,” nodded Nedohin. “When we’re (playing) as a unit and we get the flow going, whether we give up a two or have opportunities (to score), we just have great communication and I like the dynamics of our team. I just feel we always get stronger as the week progresses, whether it’s with each other or with learning the ice and the rocks.”

“Today was a really good day,” added Iskiw. “We built more, we started to see form and communication like we did at the Scotties. Going into the last half of the week, this is where we want to be.”

Not that the Canadians need any motivation, but Kim, who has a 6-2 record heading into the late draw, provided some after the loss.

“I think if we meet Team Canada again we can beat them,” she said. “I think they are a good team but Jennifer Jones (team) is better.”

Both Nedohin and Iskiw smilingly declined to comment when told of Kim’s bravado.

Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson also headed into the late draw with a 6-2 record facing a big game with Scotland’s Eve Muirhead (4-4), a rematch of the European championship final, won easily by the Scots.

“If we keep winning our games, we will keep our place in the tables, so that’s the most important,” said Sigfridsson.

Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott is also in the mix with a 6-3 record, while Allison Pottinger of the U.S. (5-4 after going 0-4 to start the worlds), Scotland and Denmark’s Lene Nielsen (4-4, taking on Italy’s Diana Gaspari late Wednesday) have some work to do to reach the playoffs.

“All I know is we need to win,” said Pottinger, who rolled to wins over the Czech Republic’s Linda Klimova and Russia’s Anna Sidorova on Wednesday. “All I know is we need two more W’s and you can talk to me (Thursday night) and I’ll let you know how we’re doing.”

Klimova is 2-6 and Sidorova is 3-5.

The top four teams make the playoffs, with the first- and second-place teams meeting in Friday’s Page playoff 1-2 game. The winner of the 1-2 game goes to Sunday’s gold-medal game while the loser drops to Saturday night’s semifinal.

The third- and fourth-place teams, meanwhile, play in the Page 3-4 game on Saturday morning with the winner advancing to the semi and the loser dropping to Sunday morning’s bronze-medal game.

— Postmedia News

Standings

After Draw 13

Country (Skip)WL

Sweden (Sigfridsson)72

Canada (Nedohin)72

South Korea (JS.Kim)72

Switzerland (Ott)63

U.S. (Pottinger)54

Denmark (Nielsen)54

Scotland (Muirhead)45

Russia (A.Sidorova)45

Germany (A.Schopp)36

Czech Republic (Klimova)27

Italy (Gaspari)27

China (B.Wang)27

WEDNESDAY RESULTS

Draw 12

Canada 7 South Korea 5

Sweden 7 China 5

Switzerland 8 Italy 4

U.S. 6 Czech Republic 4

Draw 13

Canada 5 Germany 4

Denmark 7 Switzerland 4

Scotland 9 China 7

U.S. 7 Russia 2

Draw 14

Denmark 5 Italy 4

South Korea 9 Germany 4

Sweden 3 Scotland 2

Russia 9 Czech Republic 6

TODAY’S GAMES

Draw 15, 10 a.m.

Sweden vs. U.S.

Czech Republic vs. China

Italy vs. Canada

South Korea vs. Switzerland

Draw 16, 2 p.m.

Germany vs. Czech Republic

Denmark vs. Sweden

Russia vs. South Korea

Scotland vs. Italy

Draw 17, 8 p.m.

Switzerland vs. Russia

Canada vs. Scotland

China vs. Germany

U.S. vs. Denmark