Canada's Jones beats Russia; Gushue posts 7-3 win over Italy

BEIJING — A matchup against last-place Russia was just what Canada's Jennifer Jones needed at the Beijing Olympics.

Jones took advantage of several mistakes by Alina Kovaleva en route to an 11-5 victory that ended a three-game losing skid.

"One million per cent we needed to win that game," Jones said. "That was a massive win. I thought we played good from the first rock to the last rock."

The Winnipeg skip kept up her strong play in the evening draw, improving to 3-3 with a 7-3 victory over Great Britain's Eve Muirhead.

A fourth loss for Jones would be a major blow to her chances of making the four-team playoff cut.

"We've been in situations where we've started a little slow and climbed our way back," said Canada lead Dawn McEwen. "This is just another one of those situations."

Kovaleva gifted the Canadians a pair of two-point steals at the start. Jones was in trouble in the second end, but the Russian skip missed a nose hit that could have scored three.

A chance to take the lead instead became a 4-0 Canada advantage and Jones never looked back.

Kovaleva continued to struggle throughout the game, shooting just 53 per cent. Jones was steady at 78 per cent.

Canada's schedule improves over the second half of the competition, but the team is still essentially in must-win mode.

Canada will play the United States and China on Wednesday before closing out her round-robin schedule Thursday against Denmark.

"You need to get on a roll at these events," Jones said. "Maybe this is the start of a good roll for us."

Gushue posts 7-3 win

In men's play, Canada's Brad Gushue posted a 7-3 win over Italy's Joel Retornaz.

Gushue improved to 4-2, good for sole possession of third place behind Sweden's Niklas Edin (6-0) and Great Britain's Bruce Mouat (5-1).

"We've still got some room to get better for sure," Gushue said. "We're not there yet but we're close."

Mouat edged Switzerland's Peter de Cruz 6-5, Edin topped Russia's Sergey Glukhov 7-5 and Denmark's Mikkel Krause shaded Norway's Steffen Walstad 6-5 in an extra end.

Russia, Switzerland, and American John Shuster were tied in fourth place at 3-3.

Entering the late women's draw, Jones was in a sixth-place tie with South Korea's EunJung Kim, who dropped an 8-6 decision to American Tabitha Peterson.

Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa crushed China's Yu Han 10-2 in the other early game.

Switzerland leads the 10-team women's field at 5-0.

Japan is next at 4-1, followed by the United States at 4-2. Great Britain and defending champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden share fourth place at 3-2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press