Team Canada rock solid at world event
HALIFAX — With three days of round robin competition complete, the Canadian side skipped by Pat Simmons is showing it’s the team to beat at the Ford World Men’s curling championship.
Simmons picked up two more wins Monday to remain undefeated at the 12-team event. He whipped the Czech Republic 11-2 in the morning draw and improved to 5-0 with a 9-3 rout of Russia in the evening.
“You’re always going to have those ends here and there when you need that freeze or you need that big shot — and he’s making all of them,” second Carter Rycroft said of Simmons. “The difference is if he misses three or four of them, we’re sitting here talking to you at 3-2 or 2-3. It’s that simple.”
Expectations were rather mixed for the Canadians this week given that they played a limited schedule this season and switched skips midway through the Tim Hortons Brier. But Simmons has shown that he still has the skipper’s touch while Morris has settled in nicely at third.
The solid front end of Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen has also helped the host side in the early going.
“One thing I think this team has really done well — considering games-wise we’re still a pretty young team — is just how natural our communication is,” Simmons said. “The discussions seem to come easy and that’s a pleasure.”
In the nightcap, the teams blanked two ends before Russia’s Evgeny Arkhipov drew to the four-foot for a single in the third. Simmons answered with three in the fourth end and tacked on another point in the fifth.
Simmons hit a draw for a pair in the seventh end and added three in the ninth for the victory.