(CTV) After managing a series of great escapes to win her first three games, Cheryl Bernard did her best Harry Houdini impression once again Friday night, slipping past Denmark 5-4 in an extra end. And for the third time in as many games, the Canadian skip drew the four-foot with her last rock to keep her team’s perfect record intact.
“The games are a little tight,” admitted Bernard. “Perhaps a little bit too tight for everyone in our family. It looks like they’re going to lose it.”
The victory kept the team in first place at 4-0, tied with Sweden’s Anette Norberg.
Kevin Martin doesn’t mind the fact that he’s not getting the full Olympic experience. At least, not on the ice.
For the second straight game, Martin hammered his opponents into an early concession, this time closing out Denmark 10-3 in just six ends.
And once again, the Canadian team used a big five-ender to seal the win.
‘The guys are shooting well,” said Martin of his team of John Morris, Marc Kenedy and Ben Hebert. “We put a lot of pressure on them every end.”
As they did in dispatching France in eight ends the day before, the Canadian team jumped out of the game and forced the Danes to make perfect shots.
When they weren’t able to keep up, the Martin squad pounced, hardly breaking a sweat in the process.
With the score tied at two after three ends, the Canadians moved their stones into position, capitalizing on some misses from their opposition.
Martin made a great raise takeout with his first leaving Denmark’s last-rock thrower Johnny Frederiksen a difficult freeze on a stone hidden behind cover in the four-foot, hoping to hold the Canadians to one. But the shot crashed on a guard at the top of the rings and spun into the open, sitting there as an easy target for Martin.
“If he gets by, the weight was perfect and it’s a score of one, the score’s 3-2 playing five and he has hammer,” said Martin of the missed Dane shot that changed the game.
The crowd, sensing the big end, rose to cheer the Canadian skip who calmly stepped into the hack and delivered the takeout right on target for a big five-point end.
Martin couldn’t remember the last time his team scored five-enders in consecutive games.
“Not in a very, very, very long time,” he admitted. “I can’t even think of the last five-ender. You don’t’ get many five-enders.”