VANCOUVER — Canadian curler Cheryl Bernard is getting a lot of practice in close games at the Vancouver Olympics.
Bernard missed a pair of critical shots late in her round-robin match with German skip Andrea Schoepp, but rebounded by drawing near the button with her final stone to cap a 6-5 extra-end win.
The victory improved Bernard’s tournament record to 3-0 and moved her into a tie with Sweden for first place.
The win was the third straight for Bernard’s rink to come courtesy of the final stone. On Wednesday, she trailed Japan 6-5 heading into the 10th end but scored two with her hammer to come out on top, while on Tuesday she drew to the four-foot marker to knock off Switzerland.
“The way we’re playing the games — we’re not going to be up 6-0,” Bernard said after the victory. “We’re playing a pretty simple game. We’re trying to force and take our points in the even ends so we’re never going to be up a ton. So I’m pretty confident with that and I don’t mind having to draw to the pin. The girls know how to sweep them and it’s getting easier and easier.”
It could have been a little easier Thursday.
Up 4-3 in the eighth end, all Bernard had to do was slide her final stone into the eight-foot circle to pick up a deuce. She came up well short of the house and had to settle for a single point.
Up 5-4 in the 10th, Bernard needed to draw near the button with her hammer to negate a German rock sitting in the four-foot marker. By the time her stone settled, she was inches short.
“I threw what we thought we needed to throw and it wasn’t the right weight so we adjusted and knew it after that,” Bernard said.
That adjustment was quite evident in the extra end.
Whereas Bernard had come up inches short one frame earlier, she was on the right side of the inch in the 11th when her rock — swept feverishly by lead Cori Bartel and second Carolyn Darbyshire — stopped just closer to the button than Schoepp’s.
With a win over 1-2 Denmark on today, and another against the currently 0-3 Americans on Sunday, Bernard can move to 5-0 in the tournament.
In other action, 19-year-old British skip Eve Muirhead led her rink to a 10-3 thrashing of Russia. With the win, Muirhead’s squad moved to 2-1 while Russia dropped to 1-2.
Muirhead has quickly earned herself a reputation as a shotmaker and Thursday was no different. In the fifth end, she drilled a triple take-out to score two.
“We’re on our way,” she said. “We’re rolling. We’re working well as a unit of four.”
Britain will play Germany today.
China, pegged by many as the tournament favourite after winning the world championship last year, picked up its second straight victory Thursday with a 9-5 win over Japan. Both teams are now 2-1 in the tournament.
Denmark was also a victor, beating the United States 7-6.