Marc Kennedy reacts after winning the match against the U.S. in Men’s Round Robin Session 3.Issei Kato/Reuters
Behind a memorable highlight-reel deuce from skip Brad Jacobs on Friday intended to quiet his American competitors, the Canadian men’s curling team stayed undefeated at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with a 6-3 win over the U.S.
The team of Jacobs, Ben Hebert, Brett Gallant and Marc Kennedy improved to a 2-0 record in round robin play.
The saucy marquee moment of the game came in the fourth end. Jacobs made the Americans pay for celebrating a little too much on their nice shot when Canada still had one stone to go.
With hammer, the Canadian skip threw a masterful shot into a tight spot to edge the U.S stone off the button and score two for Canada. It was the first big emotional holler of the Games from Canada’s men.
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“When a team makes a good shot and celebrates like they’re gonna steal when there’s another shot to come, that’s a mistake,” said Jacobs. “That just motivates you to want to make something back on them and shut them up. And we did, and that was a big deuce.”
They were able to hold the Americans to a single in the fifth end and take a 3-2 lead into the half-game break.
Jacobs’s soft take-out scored one in the sixth. Then a couple of delicate outturn draws by the Canadian skip in the eighth end set up a steal of two and provided a nice four-point cushion. They held the U.S to just a single after that.
Friday’s atmosphere overlooking the four sheets inside Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium was loud and booming, even prompting a call on the video screen for “quiet please.” Spectators shrugged it off. A big contingent of excited flag-waving, horn blowing Italian fans came full force while watching Italy face the top-ranked men, Bruce Mouat’s Great Britain team. School kids also added to the clamour, stomping their feet from the rafters.
The American team invited more noise early in the game, by beckoning up after their nice shots to pockets of stars-and-stripes wearing faithful. The U.S. men were playing to the crowd, much as fellow American Korey Dropkin had while playing to a silver medal in mixed doubles earlier this week.
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“We played in a very similar atmosphere in Vancouver, steel bleachers, where the hometown team was crazy,” said Hebert. “It’s noisy out there, but just communicating the best we can, and that’s why it’s different than the other event. It’s awesome.”
Team Jacobs is back on the ice later Friday (1:05 p.m. ET) against Sweden, the defending Olympic champions led by skip Niklas Edin.
Later Friday, the U.S. women’s curling team beat Canada for the first time ever at an Olympic Games, edging past Rachel Homan’s top-ranked rink 9-8.
The Canadian team, which also includes Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes and Tracy Fleury, fell to 1-1 in round-robin play after a topsy-turvy game at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The team skipped by Tabitha Peterson, and including sister Tara Peterson, Cory Thiesse and Taylor Anderson-Heide, called to the crowd often during the back-and-forth game. Fans chanted U-S-A as the victory put the U.S. up 2-0 in the standings.
“We’re ecstatic. I mean, there’s still lots of tournament ahead,” said the U.S skip. “We have tons of games ahead of us, but this is going to pump our tires for sure.”
Coming into Friday, Homan was 11-1 all-time in four-person games against Peterson as skip.
“Obviously, we wanted to win that game,” said Homan. “But there’s lots of games left, and we’ll just take the lessons from that game.”
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