Canadian side sweeps skins draw to lock up win over Europe at Continental Cup | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Canadian side sweeps skins draw to lock up win over Europe at Continental Cup

Team Canada jubilates after defeating Team Europe to capture the Continental Cup in Calgary on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Michael Burns
Original Publication Date January 11, 2015 - 2:20 PM

CALGARY - Canada dominated Europe in Sunday's skins matches to win the Continental Cup at Canada Olympic Park.

Canada swept all three afternoon skins games to guarantee the victory and then won two of the three evening matches for good measure.

In a race to 30.5 points, Canada entered Sunday's draws with a 22-8 lead, needing just 8.5 points to win the event — which it did in Draw 10 by claiming 10.5 points. Canada then added another 9.5 points in Draw 11 to finish the four-day competition with a 42-18 advantage.

"I was surprised by the margin but we expected to win," said Canadian coach Rick Lang. "We knew we had a great team. I thought they would challenge us more because they also have top international teams."

In the afternoon draws, Winnipeg's Mike McEwen secured the victory when he picked up a full point in his match against Sweden's Niklas Edin, giving Canada an insurmountable lead over the European team.

McEwen went on to win by a score of 3.5 to 1.5.

"Every draw it's been like they got one point, we go two," McEwen said Canada's showing this week. "We kept on them and then we had a few sweeps. We really haven't had a draw where things didn't go right."

Ottawa's Rachel Homan defeated Sweden's Margaretha Sigfridsson 3.5 to 1.5 and Canada beat Europe in the mixed team competition by the same score.

In the evening draws, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. beat Great Britain's Dave Murdoch 4-1 in a rematch of the gold-medal matchup from the Sochi Olympics while Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones played Scotland's Eve Muirhead to a 2.5 tie.

"You could tell we were sharp from the get-go," said Jones. "And we never let up. It was coming together as a team, getting that camaraderie and great energy. And we had that from day one. We got on a roll and never looked back."

Canada also edged Europe 3-2 in the evening's mixed team competition.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015
The Canadian Press

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