Canada's Einarson, Gushue pick up wins at Pan Continental Curling Championships

CALGARY — Canada's Kerri Einarson rolled to a 12-1 rout of Kazakhstan's Angelina Ebauyer on Tuesday at the Pan Continental Curling Championships. Then later in the evening she rocked the Hong Kong team skipped by Ling-Yue Hung 8-1.

In the early game, Einarson scored two in the first end and stole three points in the second en route to the six-end victory at the WinSport Event Centre.

In other morning round-robin games, South Korea’s Seungyoun Ha defeated Australia's Jennifer Westhagen 13-1, Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa beat New Zealand's Jessica Smith 11-1 and Hong Kong's Ling-Yue Hung topped Brazil's Isis Oliveira 8-2.

Einarson, from Gimli, Man., improved to 3-0 in the evening draw scoring two in the first end, one in the second, one in the third, one in the fourth and three in the fifth before Hong Kong could get on the board.

"We’ve been trying to learn a lot and get better every game, and I think we have been. The ice has also been getting really good, so we’re trying to make some good shots out there so that we can get ready for the end of the week,” lead Brianne Harris said after beating Hong Kong.

“We try to keep our focus the whole game, no matter what the score is. We respect all of the teams that we are playing because they’re here to win, too.”

A top-five finish will secure a berth for Canada in the March 18-26 world women's championship in Sandviken, Sweden. As host country, Canada already has a berth in the April 1-9 world men's playdowns in Ottawa.

In men's play, Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., evened his record at 1-1 with a 7-1 win over Brazil's Marcelo Cabral de Mello.

Canada opened with three in the first end and built a 7-0 lead heading into the seventh.

Brazil scored its only point of the game on a draw in the seventh before conceding.

"I thought we played better today,” said Gushue. “We didn’t have any of the big misses we had in the second half of (Monday’s) game. We made some adjustments and hopefully we’ll be OK.”

For the first time in his career, Gushue left the game after the fifth end to rest a troublesome hip, and allow alternate Nathan Young, who won a mixed doubles gold medal at the 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games, to throw a few shots.

“There was a lot of tightness in last night’s game and I got some work done on it,” said Gushue. “It still doesn’t feel great, but I’m just trying to give it a little extra rest and get some more treatment today.

"We have a two-game day tomorrow and a two-game day the day after, so I’m just trying to feel a little bit better. It was a good opportunity to get Nathan in there; it was nice to see him out there."

Competition continues through Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2022.