(CCA) In the end, it was the cakewalk that appeared to be developing from the start.
Team North America didn’t let down Saturday night at Servus Credit Union Place, erupting in the late going for a sweep of three 30-point skins at the World Financial Group Continental Cup, presented by Monsanto.
With the pendulum seeming to slowly swing in Team World’s favour, the home side managed to steal an amazing 40 points on the final ends of three matches which more than catapulted it beyond the point of no return and into the winner’s bracket for the fourth time.
Canadian champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, who had been blanked for seven ends, stole a 22-point skin in the last end against Mirjam Ott’s Swiss team from Davos. Kevin Koe’s Edmonton unit stole nine points to subdue Niklas Edin of Sweden and John Morris, skipping a North American mixed skins entry, out-drew David Murdoch of Scotland to the button on a final-end carryover to steal yet another go-ahead nine-point skin.
In the end, it was Jones (Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer, Dawn Askin) 22-8 over Ott, Koe (Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft, Nolan Thiessen) 21-9 over Edin and Morris (Ann Swisshelm, Marc Kennedy, Nina Spatola) 19-11 over Murdoch.
Heading into today’s final 55-point skins tests, the Amerks hold a 217-73 lead, a spread of 16 points more than necessary to clinch the Cup victory.
“Of course we didn’t expect this,” admitted Team North America coach Rick Lang of Thunder Bay afterward. “But, you know, it started early. We just set the tone the very first day when we dominated, got some confidence and picked up a roll. After that the only pressure was to attend to our own team and continue the good play.”
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(CCA Photo)