Kerri Einarson’s Canada rink routs New Zealand 11-3 to open Pan Continental Championship | CBC Sports
Kerri Einarson’s Canada squad scored five in the eighth end to complete an 11-3 win over New Zealand on Monday in its opening match at the inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championships.
With Canada sitting four in the final end, Einarson drew for a fifth point on her last shot, leading to New Zealand conceding the game.
“We wanted to play our game and put some pressure on them,” Einarson said from Calgary. “We couldn’t get lulled into the hitting game, and we thought that if we keep putting pressure on them, we’d get some opportunities and capitalize on them.”
Einarson and her team from Gimli, Man., opened with the hammer and scored two points in the first end. Canada followed with a steal in the second to take an early 3-0 lead.
New Zealand, facing the powerhouse Canadians in a World Curling Federation-sanctioned women’s competition for the first time, scored two in the third end to cut the lead to 3-2 at the WinSport Event Centre.
The heavily favoured Canadians responded with another sequence of a two-point end followed by a steal of one to go up 6-2.
New Zealand scored one in the sixth end to cut the lead to 6-3. After Einarson blanked the seventh end, the teams shook hands after Canada’s five-point eighth.
Later Monday, Canada’s men’s team skipped by Brad Gushue of St. John’s opened with a showdown against the United States in the afternoon draw.
The seven-day event is the qualification route for the 2023 world championships for all countries outside of Europe.
WATCH l Devin Heroux, Colleen Jones break down USA Curling controversy:
Hosts Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones break down the controversy around USA Curling with Monica Walker from Global Initiative for DEI in Curling and Debra Martin from United We Curl. They also catch up with world mixed curling champ Jean-Michel Ménard, Kerri Einarson and swimmer Javi Acevedo who just learned how to curl.
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