Team Canada was already firing on all cylinders at the Booster Juice World Junior Mixed Doubles Championship… and then they found another gear.
After outscoring opponents 64-12 in the pool stage while finishing 6-0, Canada’s Brooklyn Ideson and Owen Henry turned up the heat in the quarterfinal and took down Norway’s Sylvi Ilnes Hausstaetter and Sondre Svorkmo Lundberg.
“It’s awesome to reach the semi in our first world championship,” said Ideson. “We are super hyped to have the opportunity to play for a medal tomorrow.
“It feels great making the semis,” said Henry. “We have got a good handle on the ice and the rocks and just have to keep getting marginally better with each rock like we have been all week.”
The score would have been more lopsided, except Hausstaetter made an incredible angle runback pick, removing a Canadian stone off the button. What looked like a guaranteed steal of one, turned into three points for Norway.
“It was a great shot,” said Ideson. “It was good moment for us to reset and find our focus, to lock in on our own processes to make sure we kept our lead for the rest of the game.”
“They had been playing well all week so we knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game,” said Henry. “We put a lot of pressure on them in the first four ends and she made a pistol on her last.”
The final score was 12-3. Norway conceded once Canada stole two in the seventh end.
Earlier in the day, the Canadians faced Slovenia and emerged with yet another convincing win. After taking four in the first end, and another four in the third, Ideson and Henry cruised to a 16-2 to finish off the round robin.
The undefeated Canadians finished first in Group D. Denmark and Scotland also won their groups going 6-0 in groups B and C. Japan and Czechia were both 6-1 in Group A, and ended up facing each other in the quarterfinals. Japan moved on with an 8-4 win.
Canada will face Denmark – who defeated Germany, 9-2 in the semifinal – Sunday at 10:00 am MT. The other semifinal will see Scotland face Japan.
“Denmark are the reigning silver medallists so it should be a really good game,” said Ideson.
For scores and schedules, visit https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjmdcc/default . For streaming, go to Youtube and find Curling Stadium Edmonton.
