Canada’s Team Homan heads into semifinals with perfect record at Pan Continentals

LACOMBE, Alta. — Jobs No. 1 and 2 have been taken care of by Canada’s Team Rachel Homan at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

Finish high enough for Canada to qualify for the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship in South Korea: check.

Earn a playoff berth: check.

And now the final task for Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg moves to the top of the to-do list: a  first gold medal for a Canadian women’s team at the Pan Continental Championships.

Team Homan will begin that quest in Friday morning’s 9 a.m. (all times Mountain) semifinals at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex when it will take on China’s Team Rui Wang (4-3) for the right to play for gold on Saturday.

The Ottawa team finished first in round-robin play with a perfect 7-0 record, capping its schedule on Thursday afternoon with a grinding 8-6 win over previously unbeaten Team Miyu Ueno (6-1) of Japan.

Japan finished second in the round robin and will play third-place Team Eunji Gim (5-2) of South Korea in the other semifinal.

And it will be Canada that has last-rock advantage and choice of stones for the entirety of the playoffs by virtue of its perfect record.

“Well, that’s exactly it,” said Miskew. “Having hammer and rocks in a field like this with the level of competition that we’re going to be facing tomorrow is definitely what we wanted. So we’re pretty pumped to have both rock selection and hammer. That is basically what we were playing for today.”

Much will be made of the crucial double takeout Homan made with her last shot of the game to remove two frozen Japanese stones surrounding the button, and it was indeed a massive shot.

That Canada was even in position at the end, though, was largely due to a sublime sweep from Miskew and Wilkes in the fifth end that barely — repeat, barely — dragged Homan’s final shot into the eight-foot to sit second shot. Halfway down the sheet, the stone appeared light and had it not reached the rings, Japan would have had a draw for four that would have decisively swung momentum.

Instead, Ueno settled for two to tie the game 4-4 and leave Canada with the all-important last-rock advantage in the even ends in the back half of the game.

“We’re lucky to have two of the best sweepers on our team, they make a lot of shots for us out there,” said Fleury. “That was a big sweep for sure, and getting it into the eight-foot was critical. We were happy with just giving up two there.”

Miskew knew what was at stake on the shot, and there was no shortage of motivation to lean into the scrub a little harder.

“I mean, that’s why we’re there,” she said. “I think that as a player on the team, having the confidence to throw (draws) a little light and give it to us is what we want. (Throwing) heavy is tough; we don’t want to watch them. We want to be working out there. And Rachel knowing that she can be a little on the light side and that we’ll get it there for her is something that motivates us to work just as hard as we do.”

Canada retook the lead with two in the sixth, and Japan never got closer, taking singles in the seventh and ninth ends, before Homan delivered her game-winning double in the 10th.

The semifinal winners will play for gold Saturday at 3 p.m., with the losers going into the bronze-medal game Friday at 7 p.m.

“It’s nice to have some momentum heading into the playoffs,” said Fleury. “We always like starting the game with hammer, so that’s good, and we feel like we have a good handle on the rocks, so we’re going to pick a good set and we’re going to come out strong tomorrow.”

China clinched the fourth and final playoff spot with a 9-4 win over Team Cory Thiesse of the United States (3-4).

In the other final-draw games, South Korea defeated Mexico’s Team Adriana Camarena (1-6) 11-4; New Zealand’s Team Chelsea Suddens (2-5) turned back Chinese Taipei’s Team Ko Yang (0-7) 10-3.

The results meant Chinese Taipei will drop to the Pan Continental Championships B Division next season, while the winner of Saturday’s B Division final will be promoted to the A division next season.

With round-robin play completed, the four countries — Canada, Japan, China and the United States — that will join hosts South Korea at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Championship next March have been determined.

Eight more countries will come out of the European Championships, which begin Nov. 16 in Lohja, Finland.

The men’s playoffs get underway Thursday at 7 p.m. as Canada’s Team Brad Gushue (7-0), who finished first in round-robin play, will take on fourth-place Japan’s Team Shinya Abe (4-3) in one semifinal, while Team John Shuster of the United States, who finished second with a 6-1 record, plays third-place Team Xiaoming Xu of China (4-3) in the other.

The winners advance to the gold-medal game Saturday at 10 a.m., while the losers will play for bronze Friday at 2 p.m.

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