Canada’s Team Homan to play for gold at Pan Continental Championships

LACOMBE, Alta. — Rachel Homan spent Halloween night at home in nearby Beaumont trick-or-treating with her husband and kids. The family theme was superhero costumes, with Homan dressed as Superwoman.

How very fitting, then, that during Friday afternoon’s women’s semifinal at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships all but took flight with a cape flowing behind her in leading Canada into the gold-medal game with a tense 6-5 extra-end win over China’s Team Rui Wang at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.

With the win, Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg advance to Saturday’s 3 p.m. (all times Mountain) championship game against South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim.

Homan had to make arguably her finest, and most crucial, shot of the week in the 10th end against China. Leading 5-3 after a ninth-end deuce, Canada was staring down the barrel of giving up a game-losing three in the 10th.

But Homan came to the rescue, making an oh-so-perfect outturn freeze — thrown and swept to perfection, and forcing China to make a draw for a game-tying two and give Canada the hammer for the extra end.

Canada’s shot of the week?

“I think so,” said Wilkes with a smile. “Yeah, shot of the week and sweep of the week by Emma, for sure. That takes the cake.”

Wilkes, for the record, was just as integral to making the shot, and Homan was quick to note that the Team Canada front end has been key to the team’s success here this week — eight straight wins and counting.

“It was kind of a brand new line, and China and us don’t throw it the same, so we’re throwing two different lines and guessing on the speeds,” said Homan. “We can’t bounce, can’t be wide, or it’s the game. It’s definitely a huge team shot, and a great sweep by the front end. They picked up the weight early and got it there. We’re not in the final without the front end sweeping, that’s for sure. They’re just phenomenal and we’re lucky to have them.”

It was a nervy affair from the first end, with neither team able to take control. Canada, for instance, had a double-takeout to score two in the second end but Homan’s shooter rolled out leaving just a score of one. Two ends later, Canada would steal a point when Wang had an open hit to score one and rolled out, leaving Canada with one in the rings.

But China would tie it in the fifth with a draw for two. Single points were then traded, sandwiched around a blank, before Canada got its first deuce in the ninth, setting the stage for the drama of the 10th end.

In the extra, Homan’s first shot was, for all intents and purposes, a double takeout that got two Chinese stones out of dangerous positions and left Canada sitting two biting the button behind a centre guard. Wang’s last-gasp double takeout could only remove one Canadian stone, and Homan didn’t need to throw her last stone.

“We stuck together,” said Homan of her team’s performance under pressure. “We definitely wanted some shots back, but honestly, we played a really good game. They (China) just played crazy good, so it was just one of our few mistakes here and there were a little bit more evident when they played so well.”

Canada defeated South Korea 8-2 in round-robin play on Wednesday, a game in which Team Homan, ranked first in the world, jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three ends. Team Gim is third in the current world rankings.

The teams met twice at the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Championship in Sydney, N.S., with Team Gim winning in the round robin and Team Homan beating South Korea in the semifinal.

“I know that we’re going to see a better team than we saw earlier in the round robin,” said Homan. “That wasn’t them, so I’m sure we’re going to get another game like we had in the semi here.”

Canada will be looking to win its first women’s gold medal at the Pan Continental Championships.

South Korea shaded Japan’s Team Miyu Ueno 7-6 in the other semifinal. Japan will play China in the bronze-medal game Friday at 7 p.m.

Canada’s Team Brad Gushue, meanwhile, will play for the bronze medal Friday at 2 p.m. against Team John Shuster of the United States.

The men’s gold-medal game Saturday at 10 a.m. will feature China’s Team Xiaoming Xu and Japan’s Team Shinya Abe.

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

All games are being streamed live on The Curling Channel. CLICK HERE for details.

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