Team Canada has playoffs in sight

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This article was published 22/03/2023 (1069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The expectations are sky high for Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson.

She knows it and so does the rest of her Gimli-based team at the 2023 World Women’s Curling Championship in Sandviken, Sweden.

There’s been some highs and lows this week, but as the end of the 12-game round robin nears, Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Harris deserve passing grades for how they’ve handled the pressure. The four-time Canadian champions split a pair of games Wednesday — an 8-3 loss to Germany’s Daniela Jentsch (5-3) followed by an 8-6 win over South Korea’s Seungyoun Ha (4-4) — to move to 6-3.

Einarson, who returns to the ice at 8 a.m. CT Thursday to play Japan (3-5), is currently tied with Italy’s Stefania Constantini for second place in the 13-team field. Round-robin action concludes on Friday with Einarson playing Turkey (3-5) and Denmark (3-5).

“I think we appreciate the opportunity and we really value being Team Canada. It’s a really cool place to be. But at the same time, we just try to be ourselves and play our game and not think about that too much,” said Harris moments after beating South Korea.

“It’s just another event at the end of the day, even though it is a big one and we want to take that gold medal home for Canada. We still just gotta think of it as any other event, sticking to our process, and just throwing the rock how we always do, and those wins will come and we’ll hopefully keep getting better and better.”

The quality of the ice at the Goransson Arena has frustrated them throughout the week, but for the most part, they’ve found ways to make enough shots to win some tightly contested games.

“I would say they’ve handled (expectations) decently well. There’s moments where I can just tell (they’re) expecting themselves to curl in the 90s as it’s something they’ve gotten used to. And across the board, we haven’t done that as often as we’d like here so far,” said Team Einarson coach Reid Carruthers.

“I feel like that alone, the expectations to fulfill their normal standard, has been something that’s been tough for them to swallow. But I feel like as we’re building through this championship, the overall progression has been solid.”

Einarson was shaky in the loss to Germany, shooting a game-low 61 per cent. A loss to Korea would’ve been a massive blow to the Canadians and put them in danger of missing the playoffs, but Einarson rebounded and curled 80 per cent. Harris was brilliant in the victory, playing at a near-perfect 98 per cent.

Canada scored three in the 10th end to win the game thanks to Ha coming up heavy on her final shot.

“It was great. We definitely felt more like our normal selves out there so that was good to feel. I think if we keep playing like that and it keeps feeling like that on the ice, we’re on the right track,” said Harris, who is expecting her first child in June.

“It definitely showed a lot of resilience in us and I think we played a lot more loose and we put more shots together which was huge. The ice was also pretty good that game, like as good as it gets here.”

Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni continues to pile up the wins as the defending three-time world champions are in first place at 8-0. After Canada and Italy, there’s a logjam with Germany, Norway and Sweden all tied at 5-3. The top six advance to Saturday’s playoff round. The two teams with the best records receive byes to the semis while the other four play the first round.

“I know Switzerland is ahead in first and they’re undefeated as far as I know and looking solid, but you know, there really isn’t any team here that’s a clear front-runner,” said Carruthers.

“So, I think for us, the approach is let’s just get to the playoffs and strike fire. That’s the goal. So, get to the playoffs, battle, learn, build, and come Saturday and Sunday, it’s time to light it up.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31