Canadian curler Bernard improves to 2-0
Last Updated: Thursday, February 18, 2010 | 1:35 AM ET
CBC Sports
Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard, left, confers with lead Cori Bartel during Wednesday's win over Japan. (Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press)Canada's Cheryl Bernard improved to 2-0 in the Olympic curling tournament by defeating Japan's Moe Meguro 7-6 on Wednesday in Vancouver.
Bernard trailed by one heading into the final end, where she nailed an open takeout to score two for the victory.
Meguro's record fell to 1-1 with the loss.
"Sometimes we're going to have to win some ugly and that was one of them," Bernard said, after coming back from her urine test. "We have to be sharper thant that and I definitely have to play sharper than that."
Bernard struggled with her weight early on, and Japan silenced the partisan crowd of 5,000 at Vancouver Olympic Centre with a huge steal in the second end. Facing a difficult draw against three with the hammer, Bernard wrecked on a high guard, giving Japan a major leg up.
Bernard took a bite out of her deficit in the next end, converting an open draw for two after Meguro just missed on a double takeout try.
A mistake by Meguro in the fifth allowed Bernard to take the lead. After the Japanese skip sailed her penultimate stone through the house, Bernard positioned a second Canadian rock on the button. Meguro failed to take them out, giving Bernard a steal of two and a 4-3 advantage.
Key draw makes difference
It didn't last. In the next end, Bernard left her opponent an open hit for two that put Japan up 5-4.
Bernard blanked the seventh, then saved herself with a crucial shot in the eighth. Drawing against three Japanese stones, the Canadian squeezed her rock onto button to keep her team in the game.
In the ninth, Bernard compelled her opponent to settle for a single and give up the hammer heading into the decisive final end, where that key draw made the difference.
"It's nice those are working out," the Canadian skip said.
Bernard is joined at the top of the standings by Germany's Andrea Schoepp and reigning Olympic champion Anette Norberg of Sweden.
Schoepp improved to 2-0 by defeating winless American skip Debbie McCormick 6-5, and Norberg did likewise by clipping Switzerland's Mirjam Ott (0-2) in an extra end.
That game was a rematch of the final from the 2006 Games.
Great Britain's Eve Muirhead upset reigning world champion Bingyu Wang of China 5-4 in the opening match for both skips.
Bernard's next game is against Schoepp on Thursday afternoon.
In results from Wednesday's late draw, China downed Switzerland 8-6, Russia beat Denmark 7-3, and Sweden defeated Great Britain 6-4.
