Canada remained undefeated at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship with a last rock 10-9 win over defending champion China during draw eight action Monday night.
Jones made a delicate raise takeout with her final rock to score a pair in the final end and move to a perfect 5-0 atop the leaderboard.
“It was a big win for us, just to keep the momentum going. And to not play our best and to still come out with a win it’s huge. You want a couple of those along the way,” a smiling Jones said shortly after walking off the ice.
“A close game is always fun to play, and coming down to last rock, we haven’t had one of those, and you want to have to make a last rock to win games, and we had to do that today and that’s great for us. It builds some confidence and it’s good heading to the later part of the week.”
Canada overcame a slow start, where China opened a 5-2 advantage after five ends following single point steals in the fourth and fifth.
“It wasn’t as bad of a start as our first game. We made some good shots, just had a couple of key misses and gave up a couple of steals, but we had opportunities, we just didn’t capitalize, and we did that in the later half,” Jones said after extending her perfect start.
Canada swung momentum back in their favour in the sixth when China’s Bingyu Wang narrowly missed the target on a double takeout and allowed Jones to draw the house for four and a 6-5 lead.
In the eighth, China was sitting with two shots stones, but Jones’ last rock was a nice doubles and stay for two an an 8-6 lead.
Jones, who ended the game with a 76 per cent accuracy rating, overcurled on a freeze attempt in the ninth, leaving Wang an open hit which turned into a three point end for China and a 9-8 lead coming home.
Canada takes their 5-0 record into Tuesday games against Denmark in the morning and a key contest against the Americans on Tuesday night.
“Right now it’s going along really well, but we still need to be a little bit sharper. We’re having a couple of too many zeros and misses, and we’ll have to try to improve that tomorrow.”
China, who fell to 1-4, are down to their last gasp opportunities against Switzerland and Japan.
Scotland won the battle between a pair of 3-1 teams with an eight end, 7-3 win over Sweden.
Scotland scored all their points in three ends with a trio of multiple point ends.
After blanking the first two ends, Scotland opened the scoring with a pair in the third, and after Sweden counted a single in the fourth, Scotland blew the game open with three to open a 5-1 lead at the fifth end break.
Swedish skip Cecilia Ostlund, who was 67 per cent in the loss, counted one in the sixth, but Scotland replied with a pair in the seventh.
“That was a really good game. I don’t think the score really reflects the game. There was a lot of good shot making. And I think we just played the right shots at the right time, and all of us played well and executed all our shots well," said Scotland skip Eve Muirhead.
“We were in control the whole game. When she had the hammer we gave her no more than ones, forcing them to ones is key, and that’s what we did. When we had the hammer we definitely took control of that and made sure we scored big.”
“I think we are really taking control of everything they do and capitalizing on all their mistakes, which I think we’re doing well.”
Muirhead said the ice conditions are making her job as a skip a lot easier.
“It’s fantastic ice out there, which always makes a huge difference. The ice makers have done a fantastic job. Mark always makes top class ice and we’re enjoying the ice out there and things are going well.”
Scotland will face Norway and Latvia on Tuesday.
Sweden will be looking to keep pace with the front runners with games against Germany and Russia.
Germany kept pace in the playoff picture with a 10-4 win over Norway.
German skip Andrea Schopp got back on the winning track after dropping two straight games with a convincing win. Germany is now 3-2 and they control their own fate with Tuesday games against Sweden and Russia.
Germany was trailing 2-1 after two ends before scoring a pair in the third and stealing three in the fourth to open a 6-2 lead. Norway scored two in the fifth to cut the German lead in half, but it was all Germany for the final three ends with Schopp scoring one in the sixth, stealing one in the seventh, and stealing another two in the eighth.
Norway falls to 1-4 and they will be back on the ice tomorrow against Scotland and Latvia.
Denmark also kept in the playoff picture thanks to an 8-3, eight end win over Switzerland.
Denmark scored singles in each of the first three ends and after Switzerland scored a single in the fourth, Denmark notched a three to hold a 6-1 win at the fifth end break.
Switzerland scored two in the sixth, but Denmark ended the game with singles in the next two ends.
Denmark takes their 3-2 record into Tuesday action against Canada and the United States.
Switzerland sits 1-4 and will take on China and Japan tomorrow.
