Stating that Canada had “mixed results” on Sunday at the 2022 World Mixed Curling Championship from Curl Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland wouldn’t just be alluding to the competition’s lineup format.
A busy two game day for Canada would yield a split in the win/loss column as the Canadian foursome of skip Jean-Michel Ménard, third Marie-France Larouche, second Ian Belleau, lead Annie Lemay and coach Eric Sylvain (2-1; Etchemin/Des Collines, Québec) fell to Finland’s Markus Sipila (3-0) by a 5-3 score in draw 5 before rebounding with a 8-1 win versus Denmark’s Mikael Qvist (1-1) in draw 7.
The split leaves Canada with a 2-1 record overall and places them as the interim third place holders in Group A. Finland and South Korea (3-0; Dae-hyun Kim) share Group A’s top spot with unblemished records.
Draw 5 versus Finland saw Canada stymied as they struggled to amass meaningful momentum on the scoreboard. Opening the match with hammer, FInland would manage to steal a single point to put Canada behind in the early goings.
The teams would trade singles all the way through until the 5th end, where Finland would finally break the mold and steal two in the sixth, opening up a 5-2 lead.
Canada would respond in hopes of mounting a comeback, but could only muster a single point in the seventh end with hammer. The eighth end would see x’s on the board resulting in a 5-3 loss for Canada.
Though the story of Canada’s match versus Finland was one of offensive woes, Canada rebounded in exceptional fashion for draw 7 versus Denmark with an 8-1 win.
Canada, clearly hungry for redemption, would explode out of the gate accruing 7 points in the first four ends; six of which came via the steal.
Leading 7-0 after four ends, Canada would force Denmark with hammer in the fifth. It’s as close as the Danes would get as Canada would post another single in the sixth end and see Denmark concede the match for an 8-1 final in six ends.
Canada will now face a tough challenge in the likes of team South Korea as round robin action continues Monday morning at 3 a.m. (all times Eastern) in draw 9.
Draw, live scoring, rosters and more information are available here: https://worldcurling.org/events/wmxcc2022
