Canada’s Peterman/Gallant open with pair of wins at World Mixed Doubles

It was an ideal way for Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant to open the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship Saturday in Fredericton, N.B.

The wife-and-husband tandem from Chestermere, Alta., capped a perfect first day of competition Saturday evening at Willie O’Ree Place with a 6-4 victory over Denmark’s Jasmin Holtermann and Henrik Holtermann.

That came on the heals of a tidy 10-5 triumph in the morning draw over Germany’s Pia-Lisa Schoell and Joshua Sutor and had the Canadians in good spirits as the headed back to the hotel on a soggy evening in New Brunswick.

“The ice was great and it was pretty easy to get a feel for it, right from the first rock,” said Peterman. “So yes, really happy with day one.”

She wasn’t alone; the Canadian contingent, rounded out by team coach Laine Peters and national coach Scott Pfeifer, had plenty of reason to be positive as the winners of January’s Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials looked thoroughly comfortable on Saturday in their third world mixed doubles championship, and their first on home soil.

And as always in championship-level curling, it came down to command of draw weight, and Team Canada had it in both games.

“I think we were throwing the right weight to make a lot of the shots out there,” agreed Gallant. “We’re really close in our weights, which was helping, and we were just putting the broom in the right spot and calling good line. We were doing the little things that you need to do right to win games, and it was just clicking today, which is good. The first day is kind of usually the toughest for those little things because you’re getting a feel for it, and I thought we did really well for Day 1.”

The Danes, who had first-end hammer, could muster only single points, while Canada was able to engineer a pair of deuces — on an open hit in the second end and another hit in the sixth that needed a wonderful sweep from Gallant to generate enough curl to hold the shooter in scoring position.

After holding the Danes to one in the seventh, Canada put its power play to good use in the eighth to snuff out any steal hopes and Peterman had an open takeout for the victory.

In Canada’s debut earlier Saturday, Peterman and Gallant methodically defeated the young Germans, who actually held an early lead after forcing Canada to one in the first end and scoring two in the second.

But the Canadians replied instantly with three in the third end — the result of a lovely draw to the side of the four-foot from Peterman, and then, after holding Germany to one in the fourth, added a deuce in the fifth on a delicate tap by Peterman with heavy sweeping from Gallant.

Canada put the win away with a draw for four in the seventh end.

While both players have been busy with their four-player teams since winning the Trials in January — Gallant in particular with a win at the Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C., and a bronze medal at the BKT World Men’s Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., with Team Brad Jacobs — they were eager to reunite as a mixed doubles team in Fredericton.

“The last few days for sure we’ve been keen to get started,” said Gallant. “We’ve prepared as much or more this season as a mixed doubles team than we ever had, so having that prepared feeling coming into this event feels really good. That gives us some confidence. We’ve played a lot of mixed doubles together. We know what we have to do to have success. It’s just kind of ticking those boxes, and yeah, we did a good job today.”

It’s a one-game day for Team Canada on Sunday, as Peterman and Gallant will take on the Swedish tandem of Anna Hasselborg and Oskar Eriksson (2-0) at 1 p.m. (all times Eastern).

World Curling’s live-streaming platform The Curling Channel will be the only way to watch games from the World Mixed Doubles Championship.

For the latest scores, draw and list of teams, CLICK HERE.

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