Canada one inch from glory

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This article was published 23/03/2015 (4046 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAPPORO, Japan — An inch from gold, that’s all it was for Jennifer Jones, an inch while thousands of Canadian heartbeats pounded to the roar of one last granite stone.

For them, when that fateful 10th-end shot bit the button in the World Women’s Curling Championship final, that stubborn inch suddenly became a mile.

With that throw, Switzerland’s Alina Paetz won the final 5-3, completing a stunning run through her rookie world championship campaign. Jones and Team Canada — lead Dawn McEwen, second Jill Officer and third Kaitlyn Lawes — settled for silver, shoulders set a little higher in knowing when their backs were against the wall, they made it a hell of a game.

“The one thing I can always say about our team is, we’re going to try right until the very end,” Jones said after the closing ceremonies at Tsukisamu Gymnasium. “We did that. It was unfortunate we spotted them four points, but we really fought back.”

That Jones and her Winnipeg-based team almost came back, that they clawed out an almost-win, that Jones orchestrated what was oh so close to being a winning pair of steals, none of these things should take away from 25-year-old Paetz. For most of the final the feisty Swiss foursome kept Canada contained, shooting sharp when it mattered. In short? They deserved to win the game.

Consider Paetz didn’t miss a hit until the seventh end; she finished her shotmaking at 84 per cent; and every member of her team, including third Nadine Lehmann (90 per cent), second Marisa Winkelhausen (96 per cent) and lead Nicole Schwaegli (88 per cent) was even better than that.

This is not to say their performance was perfect. After blanking the first end with the hammer, Paetz drew in heavy with her last shot of the second, taking a disappointing single instead of the early deuce. In the stands, it seemed like that might have set a tone: it didn’t. She rebounded well.

As for Canada, they couldn’t capitalize on their chance to close even that narrow gap.

In the third, Jones threw a hit-and-roll with the hammer, but the shooter slid too deep, giving Switzerland a steal of one and a 2-0 lead. That’s the one she would most like back. “I liked the way I threw it, but I had to throw less weight,” she said. “Just because it changed the momentum of the game a little bit, even though it was super early.”

Though Officer made two gorgeous double takeouts in the fourth to set up a promising end, a rocket from Lehmann cleared the house, and Jones wound up taking the blank instead. It was a similar story in the fifth, with Paetz putting up a pair of slick hits that convinced Jones to take a blank again.

In the sixth end, disaster: with two Swiss yellow rocks clogging up the top of the four, Jones and Lawes decided on a draw with the hammer, but that ran out of the house. That miss led to a steal of two for Switzerland, and Canada trailed 4-0 with time running out.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Jones murmured at the errant rock, something that had echoed in the game a few too many times.

This is where the game got wild. In the seventh, Jones finally got her long-awaited deuce, helped along when Paetz flubbed a double take-out attempt. And though Switzerland blanked the eighth, it turned out there was still enough time for Canada to almost win the whole shebang.

With nothing left to lose, Jones came fighting back. In the ninth, the Canadian skip put up a strong draw and a perfect freeze, shots that were sandwiched between two weak takeout attempts from Paetz. Canada stole one in that frame, and suddenly the score was 4-3 coming home.

This is how an early grind of a game suddenly became a thriller written on the very last stone.

Jones schemed the 10th end wonderfully, and her team replied with confident throws. Officer made a silky come-around draw to the button with her second.

“Beauty,” Jones said after it sat, and it was certainly that. Lawes made a magnificent draw to cuddle up against one of their others.

SSLqIt was kind of an up-and-down roller-coaster of emotions.’

— Jennifer Jones

Switzerland’s Lehmann tried to clear out the red rocks, but her attempt left Canada’s shot rock untouched on the button, so Jones threw a magnificent freeze to her own shot stone. Paetz tried to knock it out, and missed. With her last shot, Jones put a red rock in the top of the eight-foot to lie four.

This is where it comes down to that one last thrilling thing: Paetz, facing two Canadian counters and a tough draw for the win, settled into the hack and squelched the nerves that were kicking in.

The stands were nearly full in Tsukisamu Gymnasium for the final, and an anxious murmur rose from the crowd as they watched that rock fly, trying to predict how it would come to lie. Jones thought she might have had it, thought Paetz’s hammer might shipwreck on her red iceberg in the eight-foot ring.

“It was kind of an up-and-down roller-coaster of emotions,” she said.

Instead, Paetz’ hammer rock came in, rubbed against that Jones stone in the eight-foot white, spun towards the button and took just enough of a bite.

You know the rest: handshakes, head shakes and jubilation, the Swiss foursome collapsing into each other’s arms for a victory celebration. There was a long closing ceremony, a medal presentation, a bevy of Team Switzerland’s family members waving red-and-white flags in the stands.

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“As a team, we played better and that made the difference today,” Paetz said later.

And while the replays of her fateful last shot covered TV screens in the media bench, she stood on top of the podium with flowers in her hands.

NOTES: Russia’s Anna Sidorova claimed bronze in a 13-4 blowout of Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, who was one of the favourites coming in.

At the closing ceremonies, Team Finland skip Sanna Puustinen was announced as the winner of the Frances Bodie Award, given every year to the player voted most sportswomanlike by their peers.

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.