Canada's Einarson beats Italy and Scotland, improves to 4-1 at women's curling worlds

Canada's Skip Kerri Einarson in action during the match between USA and Canada during the round robin session 3 of the LGT World Women's Curling Championship at Goransson Arena in Sandviken, Sweden, Sunday, March 19, 2023. (Jonas Ekstromer/TT via AP)

SANDVIKEN, Sweden -

Canada's Kerri Einarson improved to 4-1 in round-robin play with a sweep of her matches Monday at the world women's curling championship.

Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Harris downed Italy's Stefania Constantini 7-2 in the morning draw before holding on for a 9-8 win over Scotland's Rebecca Morrison in the late session. The wins moved Canada into sole possession of second place behind Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni (5-0).

"We've had a few really tight battles and a few where we're very grateful to win," Birchard said. "It feels similar to last year when I know we dropped one or two early but then powered through the rest of the week.

"We need to keep the momentum going. We're feeling strong and feeling good out there on the ice. All we can do is keep getting better."

The Canadians meet the Swiss in Tuesday's afternoon draw at the Goransson Arena before taking on New Zealand in the evening.

Einarson scored four in the first end against Morrison, but the Scots replied with four in the second.

The Canadians started slowly building a lead, and went up 9-5 after steals of one in the seventh and eighth ends.

Morrison got two back in the ninth, and made it close with a steal of one in the 10th.

"We talked about it after the second end and it was essentially like we blanked the first two ends and it was just going to be an eight-end game from there on. We really parked it," Birchard said. "We were firing after that and there were no real missteps. I feel like we put together a pretty good game."

In the earlier match, Italy faced a triple-raise double-takeout to score in the ninth end but gave up a steal of two to end the game.

The top six teams in the 13-team field qualify for the playoff round. The final is scheduled for Sunday.

Einarson won bronze at last year's world championship in Prince George, B.C.

   This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2023.