Einarson bloodied but battles on

Canada eliminated Japan in a gutsy playoff qualification game at the world women’s curling championship on Saturday afternoon in Sandviken, Sweden.

The 6-4 win over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa extended an inconsistent week for Kerri Einarson’s Manitoba foursome, who captured bronze at last year’s championship.

There wasn’t much difference between the two sides in the see-saw battle. Fujisawa’s crew, two-time Olympic medallists, actually bumped a Canadian stone in for a key steal in the sixth end.

A Fujisawa error allowed the Canadians to escape the 10th end with merely a surrendered Japanese single.

Wielding the hammer in the extra end, Einarson turned the tables on an inconsistent match with a brilliant corner freeze, which left Fujisawa virtually no chance at a steal.

“Just a little bit of confusion on a couple of shots, but we definitely made them when we really needed to,” said Einarson.

There wasn’t much difference among the other two playoff qualifying teams either. Sweden ended Italy’s impressive run as Anna Hasselborg upended Stefania Constantini by a 4-3 count.

All four squads had finished the 13-team round robin with 7-5 won/loss records. Norway’s Marianne Roervik was a touch better at 8-4, while Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni was the class of the field at 12-0.

At this point, it would be a massive upset if the Swiss failed to capture their fourth consecutive world women’s title.

Early in the week, the playing conditions left some teams pleased and others frustrated.

By mid-week conditions had improved considerably, and some squads adapted while others did not.

The Canadians were 4-1 to start their week but lost four of their last eight games, ranking third overall but clearly not firing on all cylinders.

One bright spot is the play of Canada’s front end. Lead Briane Harris ranked third in round robin shooting percentage while Shannon Birchard ranked second at her position.

Switzerland meets Sweden and Canada takes on Norway in today’s semifinals. The winners advance to Sunday’s championship final while the losing squads will battle for the bronze medal.

“It’s going to be a tough one for sure,” said Swedish third Sara McManus. “We should focus on ourselves. (The Swiss) had an amazing tournament but we’ve built something good this week.”

USA’s Tabitha Peterson and Turkiye’s Dilsat Yildiz both finished the round robin at 6-6.

Korea, Germany and European champions Denmark trailed at 5-7, while Scotland logged a 3-9 mark and New Zealand was winless in their debut world appearance.