Unbeaten Canada survives tough test from China at Pan Continental championships

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Canada’s Rachel Homan improved to 3-0 at the Pan Continental Curling Championships with a 13-0 rout of Taiwan in Monday’s early draw and a tough 7-5 victory over China in the evening draw.

Homan’s Ottawa-based squad opened with the hammer and scored five in the first end, then stole points in five consecutive ends before the teams shook hands against Taiwan.

In the evening game against Rui Wang of China, Holman scored three in the first end, but could only count singles the ret of the way. China scored one in the second end, two in the fourth, one in the seventh and one in the ninth keeping the pressure on Homan throughout.

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In other scores from Monday morning, South Korea downed New Zealand 13-3, Japan defeated China 11-6 and the United States thumped Mexico 10-2.

In other scores from Monday evening, Korea (3-0) whipped Taiwan (0-3) 11-1 in six ends, Japan (3-0) edged the United States 6-5 (1-2) in an extra end, and New Zealand (1-2) edged Mexico (1-2) 10-9 in an extra end.

On the men’s side, two-time defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., improved his record to 3-0 with a 10-5 victory over New Zealand’s Anton Hood.

Canada dictated the game from the first end, taking advantage of a New Zealand miss to make a draw for three. Team Gushue followed it up with a sneaky hit and roll of the side of the eight-foot to hide behind cover, forcing the Kiwis to draw for one in the second end.

Team Hood forced Canada to one in the third, followed by a blank and a score of two in the fifth, which brought New Zealand back into the mix.

Canada shut down New Zealand’s progress in the sixth, with Canada scoring another three points. On Gushue’s first, he played a hit-and-roll (featuring a pillar-to-post sweep from newcomer Brendan Bottcher to hold the line) and followed it up with a hit to score a second three-ender.

Canada gave up a score of two in the seventh end before scoring another three-ender in the eighth end to put the game out of reach, with New Zealand conceding.

In other scores from the third draw, China rocked Taiwan 12-4, the United States beat Australia 9-2, and Japan edged Korea 6-4.

Canada, China, Japan and the U.S. are all 3-0 and tied for the top in the eight-team, round-robin standings.