Canada’s Team Homan completes two-win day at 2024 Pan Continentals

LACOMBE, Alta. — After a pair of no-pressure wins that lasted just six ends apiece, Canada’s Team Rachel Homan was ready for a stiffer test on Monday night at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

They certainly got it from China’s Team Rui Wang, but the end result at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex was the same — another win for Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg.

With the 7-5 victory, Canada improved to 3-0, tied for first place with South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim and Japan’s Team Miyu Ueno in the eight-team round robin.

“It was good for us, and good for us to learn the evening ice. It tricked us a little bit, so it was good to be able to learn from those moments and shots,” said Homan. “It was a good game; obviously we needed to be a little bit sharper than we were, but we’ll take it and learn from it.”

The game actually started in much the same way as Canada’s two previous victories — with a big first-end score. It was three this time, as Homan had to negotiate, with superb sweeping from Miskew and Wilkes, a port to nudge her shot stone onto a Chinese stone that was sitting second shot in the back eight foot.

That was followed an end later by forcing China to one, but then it became a grind for the Canadians, who were held to a single of their own in the third and then surrendered a deuce in the fourth to pull China to within one.

After a blank in the fifth, Homan needed to make, arguably, her most pressure-packed shot of the event (until, that is, her final shot of the game) — a precise tap, coming around a Chinese guard, to score one, looking at a pair of Chinese counters in the rings.

“(Homan) always jokes with me that I come down and suggest the hardest shot on the sheet, but I’m like, ‘Well, I’m just confident you’re going to make it. You’re really good at curling,’ ” said Wilkes with a laugh. “When she’s in the hack, I’m just confident that she’s going to make it.”

Two more ends of traded singles left Canada up 6-4 through eight ends, with a great shot at a big steal in the ninth, with three stones buried behind a pair of centre guards. But Wang responded with a crucial draw to the button through a port to get a single.

In the 10th, though, looking at three Chinese stones, Homan — again with the assistance of Miskew and Wilkes — drew to bite the four-foot for the win.

It wasn’t pretty, but, noted Wilkes, even those kinds of wins have value beyond what they do in the standings.

“It just keeps us sharp; helps us tighten up the bolts a little bit, work on our communication and make some finesse shots,” she said. “It’s stressful in the moment but it’s nice to come out on top in games like that. That’s what you train for.”

In other Monday night games, South Korea improved to 3-0 with an 11-1 win over Chinese Taipei’s Team Ko Yang (0-3); Japan remained unbeaten, taking an extra end to defeat Team Cory Thiesse of the United States (1-2); and New Zealand’s Team Chelsea Suddens (1-2) hit the win column with a 10-9 extra-end win over Mexico’s Team Adriana Camarena (1-2).

Team Homan has just one game on the docket Tuesday, at 2 p.m. (all times Mountain) against New Zealand.

In men’s action on Tuesday, Canada’s Team Brad Gushue from St. John’s, N.L., has a pair of games: against Team John Shuster of the United States (3-0) at 9 a.m., and against Japan’s Team Shinya Abe (3-0) at 7 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

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Ticket information for the 2024 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.