2012 ford world womens curling championship Getting mean earns Canada comeback win

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This article was published 20/03/2012 (5259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — The shock waves were palpable. In the arena, there was an audible gasp. Viewers watching the TSN broadcast were stunned. The Twitterverse blew up.

Yes, it really happened. Heather Nedohin’s Team Canada foursome gave up a five-ender to lightly regarded Linda Klimova of the Czech Republic in the second end of their Monday afternoon game at the Enmax Centre.

But here’s what fans (and a few media types) should take away from what likely was an inevitable result, an 8-7 Canadian victory: This might not be the most exceptionally talented Canadian team to compete at the world championship, but Nedohin, third Beth Iskiw, second Jessica Mair and lead Laine Peters are proving to be one of the toughest — a team that simply keeps pushing, regardless of the circumstance.

“We know we have areas to improve on, but I think we got mean, as in we got tough,” said Nedohin, whose team was taking on Denmark’s Lene Nielsen (2-2) in a late-finishing game Monday in a bid to maintain sole possession of first place in the 12-team round robin. “We have to be out there grinding it out on each shot and being more precise. That’s what we do. Sometimes it isn’t pretty, but I do like our work ethic. We don’t give up.”

Monday afternoon provided ample evidence. After giving up that five-spot — Klimova (named after former world champ and current TSN curling broadcaster Linda Moore) made a lovely angle-raise for the big score — Canada started the comeback, albeit in faltering style. Nedohin had an open hit for three in the third end but rolled out her shooter. In the fourth, though, Klimova’s last-rock draw to the four-foot was just heavy, leaving Canada a game-tying steal of three.

From there, it was more of the same. Canada took control with stolen singles in the sixth, seventh and eighth ends and sailed home with the win.

But Nedohin said the message was sent rather clearly that slow starts aren’t acceptable.

“You know what? I think we have to get mean out there,” she said. “We’re calling it a mean Monday because it looked nasty the first five ends. But at the fifth-end break, that’s kind of when we said to each other that it’s a fresh game, it’s tied, and we had a better back five.”

Still, there was never a question in Mair’s mind that Canada would mount the comeback.

“I mean, it sucks giving up a five-ender, but that’s our motto: grind it out to the end,” she said. “Nobody’s going to shut the door on us in the second end. I think we had to increase the intensity a little bit. Maybe we came out a little flat; we needed to up the ante, I guess, and get ourselves more into the game. Get mean, make ’em pay.”

They did, and the upshot is that Canada headed into the late shift with the tournament’s only unbeaten log, although there were some teams close on their heels — most notably Ji-Sun Kim’s surprising South Korean team, which spends a chunk of its winter training at the Calgary Curling Club.

South Korea opened the day with a 7-2 upset of Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, then improved to 4-1 by thumping winless Allison Pottinger of the U.S. 8-3, a game in which Kim and third Seul-Bee Lee both were scored at 100 per cent to negate the U.S. team’s best shooting performance of the world championship (shockingly, the 0-4 U.S. headed into the late draw leading in team shooting percentage).

“I’m very surprised,” said Kim (justifiably, considering South Korean teams had a cumulative 5-26 record in three previous trips to the world championship). “I didn’t know we could have four wins. I was hoping for the playoffs. Now I want to medal.”

The Scots had medal expectations, and while they were still in the mix with a 2-2 record going into a late game against the U.S., the loss to the Koreans was hard to swallow for their young skip.

“It was a poor performance,” said Muirhead. “Give them their due, they played great. But I think we’re going to have to step up big-time. We’re just missing shots that we don’t normally miss, and I think the unit’s a little bit fallen apart and we have to build it up. But it’s in our hands. I don’t think we can get panicked. All we know is that it’s down to ourselves at the end of the day.”

Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson also carries a 4-1 record into play today after posting a pair of wins on Monday, 10-4 over Germany’s Melanie Robillard and 7-4 over Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott.

— Postmedia News

Standings

Round-robin Standings

Country (Skip)WL

Canada (Nedohin)40

South Korea (JS.Kim)41

Sweden (Sigfridsson)41

Germany (A.Schopp)22

Scotland (Muirhead)22

Switzerland (Ott)22

Denmark (Nielsen)22

Czech Republic (Klimova)23

Italy (Gaspari)23

Russia (A.Sidorova)13

China (B.Wang)13

U.S. (Pottinger)04

ROUND ROBIN

Monday Results

Sixth Draw

South Korea 7 Scotland 2

Italy 10 Russia 6

Denmark 8 Czech Republic 7

Sweden 10 Germany 4

Seventh Draw

Canada 8 Czech Republic 7

Italy 7 China 5

South Korea 8 U.S. 3

Sweden 7 Switzerland 4

Eighth Draw

Canada vs. Denmark; Switzerland vs. Germany; U.S. vs. Scotland; China vs. Russia.

Sunday Results

Third Draw

Denmark 7 Russia 5

Germany 7 Scotland 6 (extra end)

Fourth Draw

Canada 7 China 5

Switzerland 11 U.S. 7

Sweden 10 Czech Republic 5

South Korea 6 Italy 5

Fifth Draw

Canada 6 Switzerland 5

Russia 6 Germany 4

China 8 U.S. 4

Scotland 8 Denmark 6

Tuesday Games

Ninth Draw, 10 a.m.

U.S. vs. Germany; China vs. Denmark; Canada vs. Russia; Switzerland vs. Scotland.

Draw 10, 3 p.m.

Russia vs. Sweden; Scotland vs. Czech Republic; Germany vs. Italy; Denmark vs. South Korea.

Draw 11, 9 p.m.

Czech Republic vs. Switzerland; Sweden vs. Canada; South Korea vs. China; Italy vs. U.S.