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Jennifer Jones skips Canada to gold in women's curling
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Jennifer Jones and her Winnipeg rink finished their juggernaut-like run in Sochi on Thursday, and will leave Russia as Olympic champions.
The Canadian team of Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn McEwen beat Sweden's Margaretha Sigfridsson 6-3 in the women's curling gold-medal final, capping off an undefeated Olympic run of 11 straight victories.
It was the first time a team had gone unbeaten in the Olympic tournament and was also Canada's first gold medal in women's curling since the late Sandra Schmirler won in Nagano in 1998.
A measurement in Canada's favour in the eighth end and a trio of misses by Sweden in the ninth sealed the win for Jones.
Defensive game
The teams traded tough singles over the first two ends before Canada got the hammer back.
After blanking the third end, Canada capitalized on a missed double takeout by Sweden’s Maria Prytz to score two.
Prytz, who throws skip stones for the Swedes, came up short on her last rock, leaving one Canadian stone on the 12-foot. That gave Jones an open draw to the button, scoring the double for a 3-1 lead.
In the fifth, some misses by the Canadians gave Prytz a shot at scoring four, but Jones dodged a bullet by only giving up two and the tie.
Canada kept the hammer into the eighth, where a measurement was needed to determine that Jones salvaged a single to take a 4-3 lead.
Messy 9th end for Sweden
It seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Sweden in the ninth end.
Sweden's Maria Wennerstroem, throwing second stones, had her final rock pick up debris, opening up a pair of takeouts by Lawes. That, coupled with a miss by Christina Betrup, left Canada lying three with skip stones remaining.
An in-turn raise by Prytz only gave Sweden second shot rock before Jones' last shot of the end drew onto the button.
Prytz’s final chance to salvage a point evaporated when her attempt to knock Canada off the button nicked her own stone in the four-foot, giving Canada a steal of two and a three-point lead heading into the final end.
From there, Canada simply ran the Swedes out of rocks, and the Canadian celebration was on.
CBC News
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