Lohja, Finland
February 9, 2015
USA won both their games today Photo: WCF/Alina Pavlyuchik
Russia’s wins against Scotland and Sweden coupled with China’s first defeat means that they alone sit in first place in the standings after three days of play.
In the afternoon session of play, Russia continued their unbeaten record as they defeated Sweden.
They started the game well as skip Andrey Smirnov made a hit for two points to take a lead that they would never lose.
Russia went on to win 5-3 after seven ends of play, their fifth win from five games so far.
The North American derby between the USA and Canada proved to be a high scoring game.
The first big score came in the fourth end when USA skip Patrick McDonald played a draw into a busy house with his final stone to score four points, giving them a 5-2 lead at the break.
Canada levelled the game immediately in the next end, scoring three points, before the USA went ahead again after scoring two points in the sixth end.
The tables turned once more as Canada took the lead, scoring three points in the seventh end to lead 8-7 going into the final end.
There, USA skip Patrick McDonald held his nerve to make a draw into the back of the eight foot ring to take the two points needed for their 9-8 win, their second of the day.
Afterwards, McDonald reflected on the game. He said: “You know, you get on a nice roll and you’re feeling good and the next thing you know you make two little mistakes and boom, they’re right back in it. You make a couple more mistakes, boom, they go ahead. But we didn’t give up, we played hard. This team is so focused. We didn’t worry.”
China meanwhile got back to winning ways with an 8-3 win against Slovakia. After stealing three points from the first two ends a score of three points in the sixth end further enhanced their lead as they went ahead 7-3.
Slovakia eventually conceded the game in the eighth end to give China their fourth win of the Championship so far.
After this game, China skip HaiTao Wang said: “Today we had two different games - this morning we felt nervous for some reason, throughout the whole team. After that game we had a discussion and all adjusted our mentality. After that we all felt much more relaxed this afternoon.
Speaking about the game he added: “The sixth end was crucial for us as it gave us a four point lead. That was really important at that stage of game.”
Norway picked up their first win of the Championship against Scotland in what proved to be a close game.
Norway were ahead 2-1 by the fourth end break and after Scotland failed to remove a counting Norwegian stone in the eighth end, Norway closed out the game with a steal of two points to win 6-2.
Speaking about their latest defeat, Scotland skip Aileen Neilson said: "I think it was a bit of tactical, a bit of technical. We know we can play better than that so we really have to come out really strong tomorrow. We need a good night’s rest, a good team chat, we’re all supporting each other really well so that will continue and tomorrow’s a new day."
Elsewhere, Germany suffered their second heavy defeat of the day as they lost 7-1 to Finland.
RESULTS
Session 5: China 8, Slovakia 3; Scotland 2, Norway 6; Sweden 3, Russia 5; Finland 7, Germany 1; USA 9, Canada 8.
Standings after 5 sessions of play (W-L):
1. Russia 5-0
2. China 4-1
2. USA 4-1
4. Finland 3-2
5. Canada 2-3
5. Germany 2-3
5. Scotland 2-3
8. Norway 1-4
8. Slovakia 1-4
8. Sweden 1-4
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