Canada to play in bronze-medal game at 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships

Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson will be playing for bronze at the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

The team from Gimli, Man., gave up two steals in its semifinal game against South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim, which would be the difference in Canada’s chances of qualifying for the gold-medal game. 

Einarson, vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Briane Harris, alternate Dawn McEwen and national coaches Renée Sonnenberg and Viktor Kjell succumbed 8-4 to South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim at the Kelowna Curling Club Thursday night.

The loss sets up Canada’s bronze-medal game re-match against Team Tabitha Peterson and the United States on Friday at 2 p.m. (all times Pacific).

“It’s getting old,” Einarson said of the bronze-medal game. “I love playing for a medal, but it’s tough when you just can’t get over that hurdle.”

The game’s first key moment was in the fourth end. Down by one, Canada looked poised to score in the fourth end with plenty of options on Einarson’s last shot: a back-line tap on an over-buried stone, a draw to the side of the four-foot or an angle runback. Canada played Einarson’s bread and butter with an angle-run attempt for as many as three. While close, the angle was off and a good-looking two- or three-ender vapourized into a steal for South Korea. 

The second steal was in the ninth end. Down by two, Canada was getting forced to a draw for one. While everything looked good from Team Canada’s perspective, the rock kept moving to the back of the house, providing South Korea with another deuce and an 8-4 lead.

“In the fourth end, I thought I had the run made and I didn’t really think we could hurt ourselves. But that’s the way our luck’s been going this week. Off by an inch, and it hurts us,” Einarson said. “Just like my draw in nine. The girls liked it. We threw 14.5 (hog-to-hog). I didn’t think it was back-line weight because then we could have easily got a rub. That’s how it goes.”

Besides those two key moments, the Canada-South Korea encore match had plenty of back-and-forth momentum. South Korea took an early lead, but Canada tied it in the seventh after making a hit for three.

In the other semifinal, Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa needed an extra end to defeat Team Peterson and the United States 10-8. Japan and South Korea will play in the women’s gold-medal game at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The men’s Pan Continental playoffs begin on Friday at 9 a.m. Canada’s Team Brad Gushue faces Team Andrew Stopera of the United States in the semifinals.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN.ca and the TSN App will carry selected Canadian games from the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships. CLICK HERE for the full schedule.

Other games are being streamed live on World Curling TV. CLICK HERE for details.

Ticket information for the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

This story will be posted in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr