Can’t be stopped
Jones lowers the boom on vaunted Swedes, Koreans
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Team Canada went on a nice little spree and picked up matching bookends Wednesday.
Back-to-back 8-4 victories over Sweden and South Korea — the gold and silver medalists at the Pyeongchang Olympics — left skip Jennifer Jones with the only undefeated team at the World Women’s Curling Championships.
But with an 8-0 record that gives Canada 21 straight victories at the worlds dating back to Rachel Homan’s clean sweep last year in Beijing, the current wearers of the Maple Leafs are not about to get ahead of themselves, either.
“It’s better than the opposite right?,” second Jill Officer said when asked about the boost of two victories over top title contenders. “But what do we have, four games left? We can’t really let up. It’d be nice to finish strong, so we’re in a good spot hopefully going into the weekend.
“We just have to be conscious of it. We went out there and did what we could today, and it obviously worked. But now we have to keep it going.”
In handing Sweden (8-1) its first defeat, Canada was up by a pair after the first two ends, then scored multiple points in the fifth (two) and seventh (three) before the handshake at the end of eight.
“This is one loss,” said Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg, whose team is now 8-1. “We will take a lot from this game and re-focus on tomorrow games.”
In the afternoon draw against Korea’s “Garlic Girls”, a seventh end measurement that meant a big two points instead of one fell in favour of Team Jones and proved to be the pivotal point.
Canada was trailing the Koreans 4-3 after six when Jones nudged a shot next to the red and yellow rocks that were already covering part of the button. When the measurement proved it was a scoring shot, the crowd started its loudest and most consistent “Go Canada Go” chant of the week.
Jones went on to steal one in the eight and two in the ninth.
“That was a really close one ... I wasn’t sure,” Jones said of the momentum-swinging call. “But I thought I threw a good shot regardless.
“That was a huge point, to change that game for sure.”
The top two teams get an automatic berth into the semi-finals on Saturday, while those landing in spots 3-6 have to play in qualification games that morning.
With 6-2 records, Korea and Russia are tied for third. Canada plays Russia on Thursday morning and 2-7 Italy that night.
“Jennifer Jones is a world champion and an Olympic gold medalist, and she was making incredible shots,” Korean skip Eunjung Kim said through a translator. “And she has a lot of control. But also we were doing the best that we could.”
Kim claimed she’s unconcerned that the two losses put her in peril of failing to grab a Top 2 spot. The first tie-breaker is head-to-head meetings.
“The number of losses isn’t that big of a deal,” said Kim. “We played really hard, and we played well.
Now what we’re going to be focused on is the next game and everything ahead of that.”
When Jones was asked if she thought it was her team’s best game of the tournament, she did not play along. “Not really,” she said. “Early we kind of struggled a bit with the draw weight. But I thought we again finished strong. We’ve just got to get those starts a bit better.”
In the morning draw, U.S. skip Jamie Sinclair had the chance to do her team and Canada a big favour with last rock in the extra end against Korea, but she was heavy with her shot and suffered a 9-8 loss that dropped the Americans to 3-4.
“It was a good game,” said Sinclair, who was born in Anchorage, Alaska, but grew up just outside of Ottawa. “Obviously the extra end didn’t go as we planned, and we had a rough (third) end where we gave up three. So it was a good battle back.
“I think it’s really just about parking the emotions of that game and moving on to the next one. It’s a really short turnaround. “
Indeed, the Americans were right back at it in the afternoon, with a crucial game against China. An 8-4 evened their record and kept their playoff hopes alive.