Canada’s Kerri Einarson and Brad Gushue continue to sit at the top of the standings following a two-win day at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship on Tuesday in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Draw 3A:  Canada 7 – Hungary 5
Einarson (Camp Morton, Man.), Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.) and coaches Scott Pfeifer and Heather Nedohin picked up their second win of the day at Curl Aberdeen, improving to 3-0 in Pool A with a 7-5 win against Hungary’s Dorottya Palancsa and Zsolt Kiss. After Canada’s second game of the day, Einarson and Gushue are tied with Czech Republic and Scotland in the standings.

“It was much more of a textbook game and I thought we played really well. But even though we played it real well, still textbook, it’s still real stressful in the last end of mixed doubles. There’s still so much that can happen and there’s no lead that’s really comfortable,” Gushue said.

The teams chugged along at a two-point pace over the first three ends of the game, but momentum swung to Canada in the fourth end with a steal of one. Hungary’s Kiss made a brilliant runback double that had the potential to continue the trend of scoring another deuce, but he over-curled on his next shot, and that allowed Canada to weld two stones onto the button. That forced Hungary to give up a steal of one and provide Canada with a 5-2 lead.

From that point on, Einarson and Gushue outplayed Hungary for the remainder of the game.

Palancsa and Kiss were forced to take one in the fifth end, and Canada increased the lead in the sixth by scoring on an open draw for two. Hungary utilized a power play and managed to get two points, but this left Canada with a two-point lead, with the hammer and a power play in the final end. Hungary had a difficult angle-raise into the house and needed to sit two, but the team missed, and Canada didn’t need to throw its last shot.

The Canadians played their best collective game so far at the event with Einarson finishing 82 per cent and Gushue at 85. Both were personal bests for each player, and it’s a positive sign the team is getting more comfortable with the rocks and ice as it drives for a spot in the playoffs.

“I think we’re getting better each game and just trying to learn the ice and the paths and figure it out,” Einarson said.

Draw 2A: Canada 9 – Germany 6
Canada started the game with the hammer and scored a deuce, followed by keeping Germany’s Pia-Lisa Schoell and Klaudius Harsch (1-1) to a single point in the second.

Einarson and Gushue increased the lead in the third end. Germany guarded its shot stone on the button with two Canadian counters surrounding it in the four-foot. Einarson and Gushue elected to play a double, hitting a German rock in the top 12-foot circle and rolling it perfectly into Germany’s lone stone on the button to score three and take a 5-1 lead.

The big lead at the start of the game was the exact opposite of how Canada started its first round-robin game against Spain. In its first game, Canada scratched and clawed into the win column after falling behind 4-0.

“Team Canada got off to a much better start after being able to pick up on the ice in the earlier ends of this game. We maintained pressure on Team Germany, but they made some great runbacks to get back into the game,” coach Pfeifer said.

Germany regrouped in the middle ends, scoring a deuce with the last rock in the fourth and took a 6-5 lead by stealing three in the fifth end. A missed takeout attempt by Gushue, combined with a missed draw from Einarson, resulted in the score of three and provided Germany with its first lead of the game.

But Canada remained resilient and efficient with its power play in the sixth end, scoring two on an open hit and taking the lead back. Germany attempted its own power play in the seventh, but Schoell’s hit for one rolled out of the rings, and Canada stole another two points.

“Scoring a deuce in the sixth while using our power play gave us back control of the game on our way to a victory,” Pfeifer said.

With a 9-6 lead heading into the final end, Canada ran Germany out of rocks for the win.

Canada’s next game is on Wednesday against Australia’s Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt (0-3) at 4 a.m (all times ET), and South Korea’s Ji Yoon Kim and Si Woo Moon (1-2) at 11 a.m., which will be broadcasted live on TSN.

TSN/RDS 2, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide live coverage of select Canada round-robin games, in addition to all playoff games. CLICK HERE for their complete broadcast schedule.

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on Twitter, @curlingcanada.

For live scoring, standings and team lineups from the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, go to https://worldcurling.org/events/wmdcc2021

The French version of this story will be posted as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/?lang=fr

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Al Cameron
Director, Communication & Media Relations
Curling Canada
Tel: 403-463-5500
acameron@curling.ca

Kyle Jahns
Manager, Communication and Media Relations
Curling Canada
Tel: 204-803-8221
kyle.jahns@curling.ca

Christopher Hamilton
Head of Media
World Curling Federation
media@worldcurling.org