Russia next for Carey’s Canadian rink
SWIFT CURRENT, SASK. • Only 24 hours earlier, Chelsea Carey and her Canadian teammates held an emergency meeting to try to find a way to salvage their world women’s curling championship.
On Friday, they didn’t seem to have a care in the world, with their spot in the playoffs secure thanks to a clinical win over Scotland on Thursday night.
As they took to the ice in the early afternoon, throwing stones next to the Russian team they’ll face in Saturday’s 3-4 page playoff, there was no indication they were feeling the pressure of playing in one of the biggest games of their curling lives.
“It was a lot yesterday, it was a bit of a roller-coaster,” Carey said. “It’s nice to just have a relaxing day today with a little bit of practice. We’ll have a nice dinner and go to bed early.”
While there’s still a lot at stake for Canada this weekend, the pressure of playing Russia will likely pale in comparison to what the team — which includes third Amy Nixon, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters — faced on Thursday night.
After being thoroughly outplayed in an 11- 2 loss to Japan earlier in the day, the Calgarian crew faced the prospect of becoming the first Canadian team to miss the playoffs at a world women’s curling championship since 1999.
But the Canadians played arguably their best game of the week against Scotland, the 2013 champions, winning 9- 4 to book a date with Russia.
Had the two teams met instead in the final, it would have surprised no one. The Russians are the reigning European champions and have won bronze at the last two world championships. They are open about their desire to finally make the leap and bring home gold.
“We’re a t eam which comes to every event and wants to win it, it doesn’t matter which event we’re playing,” said Russian skip Anna Sidorova. “( The European championship) is a great event, and yes we are European champions, but here, we’re not nothing, but we haven’t reached anything except top four.”
Russia handed Canada its first loss of the tournament in the round robin. The 6- 3 score line doesn’t tell the full story, though, as the teams matched each other shot-for-shot until Carey missed with her final rock in the seventh end and Sidorova was able to draw for two.
With both rinks repeating the mantra of “focus on the game ahead,” there wasn’t much talk about that result on Friday. They have faced each other before on the World Curling Tour, after all, with Carey’s foursome getting the better of the Russians when they met at the GSOC Tour Challenge Tier I the last time they met.
For Carey, though, the past results will be essentially meaningless when she steps onto the ice on Saturday afternoon (4 p.m. ET).
“We know it’s gonna be a battle,” she said.