Still perfect Canada clips Denmark; Scotland just a game back at Ford Worlds

Canada’s Jennifer Jones required some key shots and a heaping helping of skipping guile to ward off Denmark at the Ford World women’s curling championship, presented by Monsanto, Tuesday morning. The Copenhagen team, skipped by Angelina Jensen with Madeleine Dupont throwing fourth stones and Renee Sonnenberg of Grande Prairie coaching, twice battled from behind to tie the match after Canada jumped out to a 3-0 lead in three ends. But Canada’s last go-ahead deuce in the ninth end proved decisive in an eventual 9-6 victory. Denmark failed to manufacture the necessary equalizers in the 10th end and when Dupont was off-target on an attempted raise-double. The win partially avenged a pair of losses the Jones team from Winnipeg suffered at the hands of the same Danish team a year ago in Gangneung, Korea.  Jones lost 7-5 in the round robin and 7-6 to Denmark in the bronze medal match. “That game was very similar to the round-robin game in Korea,” recalled Jones. “We controlled it, then let them back in it and lost. It really was a heart-breaking loss because we lost a spot in the (Page) One-Two playoff as a result. It really did remind me of that but, this time, we made the shots in the last end that we missed before.” Canada advances against Erika Brown of the United States tonight at 7:30 p.m. “We’re just trying to win every game we can,” said Jones, who is now 6-and-0. “We haven’t played Erika for a long time but we’re expecting that her team will be tough.” The Yanks were idle Tuesday morning but Scotland’s Eve Muirhead persistently remained on Canada’s tail with a 7-3 conquest of Norway’s Linn Githmark. Scotland remained a game behind at 5-and-1 and will play Canada in Thursday night’s final round-robin match. “Canada’s definitely the favourite here, playing on home ice with home support,” said Muirhead. “We just have to keep our heads high and keep playing the way we are — focusing on a game at a time.  I’m sure when we get to the game against Canada it will be a very good tussle.” In other Tuesday morning matches, Germany’s Andrea Schoepp remained in contention at 4-and-2 by hammering youthful Sweden 9-2 and China’s Bingyu Wang launched what she hopes will be a massive comeback from a 1-and-4 start by squeaking past reeling Switzerland 6-5. China faces Pacific region rival Japan (1-4) at 1:30 p.m. while Scotland plays rookie Latvia (1-4), Germany tackles Russia (3-2) and Denmark (3-3) goes right back at it against the U.S.