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Bottcher suffers first loss at world junior curling event

Jocelyn Peterman of Red Deer moved into a tie for first place in the women’s standings at the world junior curling championship Tuesday.

OSTERSUND, Sweden — Jocelyn Peterman of Red Deer moved into a tie for first place in the women’s standings at the world junior curling championship Tuesday.

Peterman improved her record to 4-1 with a pair of wins. She defeated Italy 11-3 in six ends in the morning draw before earning an 8-4 victory over the United States.

That leaves the Canadian rink tied atop the standings with Russia, Scotland and Sweden.

Peterman’s squad will play once today, facing Switzerland (2-3).

The Canadians wasted little time taking control of their game against Italy, registering a steal of five in the second end for a 6-0 lead. After the Italians scored one in the third, Peterman added four in the fourth and another in the fifth for a commanding 10-1 advantage.

Italy shook hands after scoring two in the sixth.

“We started off strong,” said Peterman. “We’re trying to play our best each game. We just had a lot of rocks in play in that game and that’s what gave us the big scores.”

Then against the Americans, Peterman stormed out to a 4-0 lead through three ends — recording steals of two and one in the second the third, respectively. Two in the eighth end gave the Canadians a solid 8-2 lead before the U.S. finished with two in the ninth.

Meanwhile in the men’s event, Canada’s Brendan Bottcher fell from the ranks of the unbeaten.

The Edmonton skip was beaten 8-4 by Scotland’s Kyle Smith to drop his record to 3-1. That left Canada in a four-way tie for second in the overall standings with Norway, the United States and the Scots.

“We didn’t really have a good handle on the ice and we weren’t too precise with our draw shots,” Bottcher said. “Scotland was great, they made a few misses early on but after that they were making everything.”

Sweden improved to 4-0 with an 8-4 victory over China.

In other action, Switzerland beat Finland 8-6, Norway got past Italy 9-3 and the U.S. defeated the Czech Republic 10-3.

The Canadians play twice today, facing Italy and Sweden.