Canada’s Team Lott/Lott on verge of playoff spot at World Mixed Doubles

OESTERSUND, Sweden — Even when things aren’t going well for Canada’s Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott at the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Championship, you can always count on them to dig in and, in Colton Lott’s words, “be scrappy out there.”

That’s what was needed Wednesday afternoon at the Oestersund Arena, as the Canadian team from Gimli, Man., found itself down 4-2 to China’s Ying Yang and Jiafeng Tian through four ends, and then gave away points in the fifth end when a draw for three was slightly heavy and ended up cutting Team Canada down to just a single.

But over the final three ends, that Canadian scrappiness paid off as Lott and Lott rallied to steal one in the sixth, with China using its power play, to tie it, stole two more in the seventh and capped the game with an emphatic steal of four in the eighth to win 10-4.

The win left Lott and Lott, who play out of the Winnipeg Beach Curling Club, with a 6-1 record and one win away from locking up a berth in the six-team playoffs. China dropped to 3-4.

“We knew we had to pick it up and obviously keep our minds and heads in the game,” said Kadriana Lott of the late momentum swing. “The last half of the game, we just had to shake the first couple ends off and move forward; we knew we could still win it.”

“That’s what you have to do in any (curling) discipline, and (mixed doubles) for sure because you only have so many rocks to come back with,” added Colton Lott. “If you keep your head back there (dwelling on past misses), it makes it really hard to claw back like we just did.”

The two points that were squandered in the fifth end could have been crushing as China called its power play in the sixth, looking to score at least two and make a Canadian comeback difficult.

But Canada played a superb sixth end and took advantage of some Chinese misses to get the game-tying steal.

“I think that was a good momentum switch for us,” said Kadriana Lott. “I mean, stealing the power play is huge in this game, instead of giving up two or three or sometimes four, so getting the steal, I think that turned the tide for us.”

Canada needs only to win one of its final two games on Thursday — at 4 a.m. (all times Eastern) against Australia’s Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt (2-5) and at noon against Becca Hamilton and Matt Hamilton of the U.S. (4-3) — to clinch a playoff spot.

“Just get a last couple of wins,” said Kadriana Lott of the goal for Thursday. “I think that puts us in a great mindset and gets us ready for the weekend.”

Sweden’s Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana remained unbeaten on Wednesday with a 7-6 win over Australia to lock up a playoff spot.

In the other pool, no one has booked a spot in the playoffs; Switzerland’s Briar Huerlimann-Schwaller and Yannick Schwaller lead the way with a 6-1 record.

The top three teams in each 10-team pool will make the playoffs, with the two pool winners getting a bye to the semifinals.

World Curling’s live-streaming platform The Curling Channel will be the only way to watch games from the World Mixed Doubles Championship, with all sheets being shown.

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For the latest scores, draw and list of teams, CLICK HERE.

The 2024 World Senior Men’s and Women’s Championships are also being played in Oestersund, with Canadian teams skipped by Susan Froud (Alliston, Ont.) and Paul Flemming (Halifax) looking to defend the gold medals won by Canadian teams in 2023. Canadian result stories from the 2024 World Seniors will be posted at www.curling.ca throughout the event.

The French version of this story will be posted as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/?lang=fr