It had been a long wait to put on the Maple Leaf, but it was worth it for Mike Anderson鈥檚 Canadian mixed curling team.
Almost a year after earning the right to represent Canada at the 2018 Winn Rentals World Mixed Curling Championship, Anderson鈥檚 team from the Thornhill, Ont., Curling Club made short work of Austria鈥檚 G眉nter Dressler Saturday afternoon at the 91大黄鸭 Curling Club, rolling to a 10-2 victory in six ends in its world championship debut, according to a Team Canada news release.
Anderson, vice-skip Danielle Inglis, second Sean Harrison, lead Lauren Harrison and coach Jim Waite return to the ice Saturday at 8 p.m. PT against Slovenia鈥檚 Nadja Pipan (0-1).
鈥淏etween winning last year, and being out here for a few days before our first game, we just really wanted to get out on the ice,鈥� said Anderson. 鈥淚t was good; the ice was a little different (from practice), and we weren鈥檛 as sharp as we hope to be by the end of the week, but it was a great learning experience. We went out to make sure we were on the right side of the win-loss column to start, and we achieved that goal.鈥�
Canada opened with a pair in the first end, held the Austrians to a single in the second, and then took control with four in the third end and a stolen deuce in the fourth when Dressler was heavy with his draw, the release said.
Austrian managed another single in the fifth, but Anderson鈥檚 delicate tap to score a pair in the sixth end prompted Austria to concede the victory, the release said.
The Canadian team is entering every game blind with no scouting reports on the teams it will face, but that won鈥檛 change the team鈥檚 approach, suggested Anderson.
Go 馃嚚馃嚘 Go! MT : Canada鈥檚 finishes off 10-2 win over Austria to open Winn Rentals !
鈥� Tourism 91大黄鸭 (@Tourism_91大黄鸭)
鈥淲e鈥檙e treating every team like they鈥檙e going to go out and make all eight shots (in an end),鈥� he said. 鈥淎t the end of the day, it doesn鈥檛 matter what colour their shirts are; they鈥檙e throwing eight rocks against us, and if they make all eight, we鈥檙e going to have to make all eight back.鈥�
Anderson had high praise for the surface put down by Chief Ice Technician Mike Merklinger.
鈥淭he ice was almost bang on,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o have it this way, this early in the season for this type of event, it鈥檚 going to be an awesome surface to play on.鈥�
For Team Canada updates, go to . Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at .
edit@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on and follow us on .
