Canadian teams remain atop pools at 2019 World Senior Curling Championships

STAVANGER, Norway — A picked stone and a measure for the win. It was about as exciting of a result that curling fans ask for in the Canadian senior women’s second victory on Sunday at the 2019 World Senior Curling Championships. The Canadian senior men’s team also won its lone game of the day.

Brenda Goertzen, Patti Hersikorn and Anita Silvernagle of the Canadian senior women’s curling team. (Photo, Curling Canada/Jason Bennett)

Skip Sherry Anderson, vice-skip Patti Hersikorn, second Brenda Goertzen, lead Anita Silvernagle and coach Bill Tschirhart picked up 7-6 extra-end win against two-time Olympic gold-medallist Anette Norberg of Sweden at Sørmarka Arena. The victory elevated the Nutana Curling Club-based team from Saskatoon to a first-place 3-0 record in Pool A.

Norberg forced an extra end after tying the game 6-6 in the eighth. Fortune seemed to favour the Swedes in the additional frame, too. They controlled the front of the house and Anderson’s first shot in the end picked, stopping a bit shorter than where she anticipated.

“If it goes to where I want it, travels and goes three or four more inches, she’s got to get shot rock and I don’t have to throw my last one. That was unfortunate it just kind of hit a spot and then died,” Anderson said.

The miss eventually left Canada with a short tapback for the victory. The shot curled just enough to clip a Canadian stone into the four-foot, but the teams needed a measure to determine who was shot rock. While it wasn’t an ideal process, it was still a win for Canada.

“I just overthrew it. I threw too much weight and it kind of hung there. We were trying to sweep to make it curl a bit and it did thankfully. It came down to the measure, so how much more exciting can it get?” Anderson said.

The teams exchanged scores of two in the first three ends (end two was blanked) and Canada took advantage in the middle of the game, forcing Sweden to single points in the fourth and sixth ends while scoring two in the fifth and seventh ends.

Earlier in the day the Canadian senior women’s team defeated Finland’s Mari Hansen 9-1.

Ian MacAulay, at left, and Morgan Currie of the Canadian senior men’s curling team. (Photo, World Curling Federation/Jason Bennett)

Canada opened with a score of three in the first end, followed by a steal of one in the second. Finland scored its lone point in the third end and Canada replied with one in the fourth, a steal of three in the fifth and a steal of one in the sixth.

The Canadian senior women return to the ice on Monday against Lithuania’s Gaiva Valatkiene (0-2) at 10 a.m. (all times ET).

On the senior men’s side, Bryan Cochrane’s team from the Russell Curling Club in Ontario had to wait nearly 36 hours before playing their second game of the championship. But there was surely no rust in their game against Kazakhstan’s Viktor Kim.

Cochrane, vice-skip Ian MacAulay, second Morgan Currie, lead Ken Sullivan, alternate Paul Adams and coach Tschirhart rode the momentum of a fiver-ender in the first end to a 16-1 win.

The Canadian senior men are tied with Germany’s Use Saile and Norway’s Flemming Davanger for first in Pool B with 2-0 records

Cochrane and his team won’t have to wait as long to play their next game, but it will be a more challenging one. They’re back on the ice on Monday at 6 a.m. against Germany’s Saile.

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

For live scoring, standings and team lineups from the 2019 World Senior Curling Championships, go to https://www.worldcurling.org/wscc2019/

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