The Canadian women’s curling team kept their hopes alive against the Americans, winning their third game in a row, 7-6. The U.S. couldn’t gain momentum back after early mistakes.
A draw by American vice-skip Nina Roth followed by two misses by Canada set up the U.S. to take advantage at the start of the game. However, an extraordinary triple takeout by Canadian skip Jennifer Jones forced the U.S. to settle for one.
A frozen takeout by Tabitha Peterson put the U.S. in position to steal in the second end, but it was Jones that came up big again on the hammer. A slow-moving draw gave the Canadians a 2-1 lead when it knocked another stone inside.
Canada gained control of the game in the third. Jones drew her last stone right on the button, hoping to hold the U.S. to one. That didn’t dissuade Tabitha Peterson, who opted to stay aggressive with the hammer and attempt a takeout. She missed wide and gave Canada a big steal of two.
The U.S. could only settle for one in the fourth but found a chance to steal in the fifth after Roth used her last stone to guard two already in the house. Jones fell short on an attempt to freeze her stone against the American’s, which was followed by a Tabitha Peterson draw to cut the lead to 4-3.
It looked like the Americans were on their way to another steal when Tabitha Peterson had a double takeout on her last stone, but Jones wasn’t to be outdone. A double takeout of her own gave Canada a point to make it 5-3.
The U.S. had a chance to capitalize with the hammer back, but Becca Hamilton missed the house on her last stone with a draw that had too much weight. Playing from behind the rest of the seventh end, the U.S. gave up a steal of one, extending its deficit to three points.
The Americans got two back in the eighth thanks to a takeout on the hammer but were still down one. A great draw by Tabitha Peterson in the ninth followed by a miss by Jones gave the U.S. a steal and tied the game up headed to the last end.
However, Canada still glided to victory, using the hammer to score the one point needed for victory.
With their second loss in a row, the U.S. women will need a lot of help in order to reach their first Olympic semifinal since 2002. Meanwhile, Canada is in good shape to get in with the help of Jones, who also skipped for the 2014 gold medal team that went undefeated at the Olympics.
The U.S., now 4-4, faces Japan in its last game of round-robin play Wednesday morning at 7:05 a.m. ET. Canada (4-3) will play its first of two matches left at the same time against China.
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