Canada ends slump at women’s curling worlds

SILKEBORG, Denmark — Chelsea Carey’s Canadian rink rebounded with a much-needed 8-7 win over China’s Jie Mei on Wednesday at the world women’s curling championship.

The win improved the Calgarybased team’s record to 4-4 as it aims to avoid becoming the first Canadian rink to miss the playoffs at the women’s worlds since 1999.

“It’s a bit of a relief. That was a must-win game for us,” said vice-skip Sarah Wilkes. “We know we have our backs against the wall now, and every game we have to come out like it’s our last game and play as hard as we can. So this is a confidence-booster; that’s how we’re used to playing.”

Canada, which lost both its games Tuesday, was in a threeway tie for sixth with Scotland and the Japan after Wednesday’s draws. The top six teams in the 13-rink event make the playoffs.

“We needed a bounce-back,” Carey said. “It was a tough day yesterday because we didn’t feel like we deserved two losses, and that’s a bit hard to park and move on. So it was big for us to come out like this today. The ice was tricky, but we were very calm about it. We were in a good place and did a good job of being patient and pulled one off.”

Carey scored three on a draw in the ninth to wipe out a twopoint deficit and then held on for the win against a Chinese team that entered the draw in a tie for first.

“I actually think we played the same as we did all day yesterday. We just got a couple breaks and we were able to take advantage of them [today],” Carey said.

Stolen singles in the fifth and seventh ends gave Canada a 5-4 lead before China took its first lead of the game with an eighth-end deuce.

China, which opened the day tied for first place, fell into fourth at 6-3. Switzerland is alone in fifth at 5-3.

Sweden scored three points in the 10th end in a 9-7 win over the United States. The Swedes lead the standings at 7-1, followed by Russia at 7-2. South Korea is third at 6-2.

Canada faces Switzerland and Russia today.