CORTINA D’AMPEZZO — Canada’s Rachel Homan will have to settle for an appearance in the bronze-medal game at the Winter Olympics.
Her Ottawa-based team of Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes dropped a 6-3 decision to Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg in semifinal play Friday.
The game was tied 2-2 at the halfway point before Sweden scored a deuce in the sixth end and added a steal of one in the seventh. Down by three with hammer in the 10th end, the Canadians were run out of rocks.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” Homan said. “We tried everything out there.”
Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni posted a 7-4 win over Tabitha Peterson of the U.S. in the other semifinal. Canada will play the United States for bronze on Saturday.
As the top seed, Sweden started the game with hammer. The teams regularly forced the other as singles were exchanged over the first four ends.
A blank preceded the first multi-point end in the sixth.
Fleury missed a takeout and took out her own stone while Homan’s runback-double attempt cleared just one rock. The Canadian skip’s hit-and-roll attempt caught the nose, and Hasselborg took it out for a deuce.
In the seventh, Sweden bumped a rock to sit shot stone in a crowded house. Homan tried a risky angle-raise, hoping for a multiple-point score, but gave up a steal of one.
Another angle raise in the eighth end gave Canada a single but Sweden got it back when Hasselborg made a double-takeout to restore her three-point lead.
Homan shot a game-low 57 per cent on her draws and was just 70 per cent overall. Sweden shot 84 per cent as a team to 73 per cent for Canada.
“They were really sharp today, and we weren’t quite getting that specific placement,” Homan said.
Homan is making her third career appearance at the Winter Games. She missed the playoffs on both previous occasions.
Canada hasn’t reached the podium in Olympic women’s curling since Jennifer Jones won gold in 2014 at the Sochi Games in Russia.
“It was a grind out there,” Miskew said. “They played well, we just kind of struggled to get the rocks in the perfect spots to get a multiple.”
Hasselborg won Olympic gold in 2018 at Pyeongchang, South Korea and took bronze four years later in Beijing. The three-time European champion is ranked 12th in the world.
Homan, the world No. 1, is a three-time world champion and five-time national champion.
Canada needed to win its final game of round-robin play to secure the fourth and final berth in the playoffs with a 6-3 mark. Homan beat Hasselborg 8-6 earlier in the week but dropped a 9-8 decision to Peterson.
The Canadian men’s team skipped by Brad Jacobs will play Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat for gold on Saturday. Jacobs skipped a different team to Olympic gold in 2014 at Sochi, Russia.
By Gregory Strong.
