Canada’s women kept their revival going with their fourth successive win, beating USA by 9-3 in their tie-breaker game at the 2011 World junior Curling Championships in Perth Scotland on Friday afternoon.

This game turned on two mistakes by USA skip Rebecca Hamilton.  In the third end, she had a complete miss to hand Canada’s Trish Paulsen the opportunity to steal two for a 5-0 lead, and then, in the eighth, Hamilton missed an attempted double, leaving Canada with a steal of one.  After a lengthy team debate, USA then conceded.

Afterwards, Paulsen said, “Her flash in three really set the ball rolling for us.  Getting up 5-0 is really strong in world competition and that really set us in motion.  We just played defensive after that, and that was that.  I’m not keeping track of how many successive wins that is, I just know I’ve got to win every game”. 

Speaking about the third end in which she faced a pair of Canadian counters and opted to play the hit rather than the draw, setting up the Canadian steal of two, she said, “things were just not going our way today. Not enough ice, turned it in. It was kind of the turn of the game. I think our shoulders went down a little bit”.

Looking forward, she added, “it’s my first year skipping, so I am happy to be at the Worlds. We have one more year of juniors together, so hopefully we’ll see everyone in Oestersund again!”

Canada’s Trish Paulsen now plays Sweden’s Jonna McManus , who beat Switzerland by 7-4 in the other tie-breaker, in Saturday morning’s Page 3 v 4 game, with the winner playing a semi-final against whichever of Scotland or Russia loses the Page 1 v 2 game, and the loser awaiting the eventual semi-final loser to play for bronze medals on Sunday.

Switzerland skip Manuela Siegrist had missed out on the last round-robin game because of illness, but, having returned for the tie-breaker, she did not use that as an excuse.  She said, “Physically I am fit now after being ill yesterday. We had our chances but they played really well and we didn’t take advantage of our chances”.

Meanwhile Swedish skip Jonna McManus, who now has her regular third player and sister Sara throwing fourth stones said, “Sara played some great shots” and explaining the line-up shuffle, she added, “I’m sick and not doing very well, my body isn’t working as it should and I haven’t played that good and she is playing very good so it felt perfect for her to throw last stones”.

The women’s Page play-offs are scheduled for 11:00 local time on Saturday.

Photo: Team Canada strike back into the Page playoffs. Courtesy of Tom Brydone.

 

Junior Women’s Standings after Tie-breakers:

1. Scotland 7-2

2. Russia 7-2

3. Sweden 6-4

4. Canada 6-4

5. USA 5-5

6. Switzerland 5-5

7. Norway 4-5

8. Japan 3-6

9. Czech Republic 3-6

10. France 1-8

RESULTS

Women, Tie-breakers: USA 3, Canada 9; Switzerland 4, Sweden 7.

 Page Play-offs Saturday at 11:00 local:

(1 v 2) Scotland v Russia (winner to final, loser to semi-final)

(3 v 4) Sweden v Canada (winner to semi-final, loser to bronze medal game)