Einarson’s Team Canada on a heater at World Women’s Curling Championship

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This article was published 20/03/2023 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a disappointing 8-7 loss to the United States on Sunday, Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson has bounced back in a big way.

With a pair of victories on Monday, the foursome out of Gimli has now rattled off three consecutive wins to improve to 4-1 at the 2023 World Women’s Curling Championship in Sandviken, Sweden.

Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Harris stole three in the last end to escape with a 9-6 victory over Norway’s Marianne Roervik late Sunday. They carried that strong performance into the next day where they started out by cruising to a 7-2 result over Italy’s Stefania Constantini. Hours later, they picked up a 9-8 win over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison.

They currently sit in second place in the 13-team field.

“Yeah, we’re happy with our record so far. We’re still a little up and down. There’s a couple that I want back from the end of (the Scotland) game, but every win is important so I’ll definitely take it,” said Sweeting, who curled at 81 per cent in Monday’s finale.

It was a bit of a bizarre game as Canada jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first end, only to surrender a four-ender back to Scotland in the following frame. Einarson would make up for it by stealing points in three separate ends and connecting on a takeout with her final shot in the 10th to prevent Morrison from scoring a double to tie things up.

Einarson shot 84 per cent, a much improved performance compared to the 68 she had against the Americans.

“We talked to ourselves after that end and just basically said it was like we blanked the first two ends,” said Birchard.

“We parked it and then after that we came out firing for the next eight.”

To move to 5-1, they’ll have to be firing on all cylinders this morning when they take on Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (5-0) at 8 a.m. CT. Tirinzoni, the defending three-time world champion, is the only undefeated team left. Einarson lost 11-3 to Tirinzoni in round-robin action at last year’s world championship in Prince George, B.C.

The playoff round, featuring the top six teams, begins Saturday. The two teams with the best records receive byes to the semis (10 a.m. CT) while the other four play the first round (4 a.m. CT).

“I think they’re just fantastic players and they work really hard at the game. Silvana and (fourth) Alina (Pätz) have been longtime teammates now and have figured out a great chemistry and make a lot of shots,” said Birchard.

“So, I think we just have to make sure that we’re putting pressure on them and capitalizing when we can.”

Regardless of what happens against Switzerland, this is the best start Einarson, the four-time Canadian champion, has had on the world stage.

“I definitely think it’s a little more special, if anything, the fact that we’re able to travel to Europe. None of us have been to Sweden and we’re really enjoying being in a different country and taking in the sights and embracing a new culture so I think that’s really exciting feeling for us,” said Birchard.

“And I think that’s really exciting for us and it just gives the worlds in general a different vibe than the last few. We’ve been really fortunate to have the home crowd in past events and that was huge for our energy on the ice. But we’ve got a great cohort of family here and we even had schoolchildren cheering us on this morning.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31