Jones wraps up second

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2015 (4043 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAPPORO, Japan — The ice was tricky, the competition at the world women’s curling championship held its surprises, but Team Canada survived it with aplomb.

Now, Jennifer Jones is off to the Page playoffs in Sapporo, her bid to bring the world title back to Canada one step closer.

On a bright and nippy Thursday morning, Jones clinched her 1 vs. 2 Page berth with a pivotal 7-5 extra-end win over Germany’s Daniela Driendl.

The victory raised the Canadians to 8-2 on the week, with just one more round-robin game left to play and locked them into a second-place finish.

Now, they’ll gear up to face Switzerland’s Alina Paetz in the 1 vs. 2 game.

OK, so the match against Germany wasn’t quite the statement game that Jones was looking for.

The Canadian skip had hoped to rebound big after falling to Paetz on Wednesday night in her second loss of the round robin. But Driendl, a world championship rookie, put in a solid effort, and kept it a battle right until the end.

Heck, in the sixth end, the Canadians were setting up to score four and put the game away. But Driendl made a solid freeze with her second shot and Jones’ hammer couldn’t push it back much farther than the edge of the four-foot paint. They had to take the lonely single and gird themselves for the long haul.

“We were very determined to win that game,” Jones said. “I was really proud of us. We went out there, and we never want to have a back-to-back loss, so even when we had an end set up and it was taken away we just were so determined to win that game.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

With the playoff round looming, the main question that still lingers is how has the Canadian foursome of Jones, vice Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen settled into this Tsukisamu Gymnasium ice?

“This has been the best it’s ever been,” Jones said.

“Today it was awesome… I think he’s got a really good handle on it, and so we can start making some precision shots.”

The Canadians were set to play one final round-robin game on Thursday afternoon, Japan time, this one against Sapporo’s own Ayumi Ogasawara.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.