Canada's Jennifer Jones gets pivotal win over Great Britain in Olympic women's curling
Canadian team improves to 3-3 in round-robin play, in 3-way tie for 5th place
Canada's Jennifer Jones and her team now sport a 3-3 record in Beijing after edging Great Britain's Eve Muirhead 7-3 in Olympic women's curling action on Monday.
With the hammer in the fifth end, Canada took the lead with a three-ender, and never looked back. Jones has improved to 3-3 in round-robin play, good for a three-way tie for fifth place. The top four sides in the 10-team standings will qualify to the semifinals.
Team Jones started the Olympic women's curling competition with a win, before losing three in a row. But the potential for a poor showing from the women's team seems to have passed.
Jones delivered in a big way with back-to-back wins over the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Great Britain, displaying the form that led her to an Olympic title eight years ago.
WATCH l Extended highlights: Jones keeps rolling with win over Great Britain:
It was vintage Jones - intense high-fives with teammates, clutch shotmaking, pistols when needed - in a performance that should send a shiver through the women's draw.
"Olympic Jen showed up today," said Canadian coach Viktor Kjell. "So that was great."
Did she ever.
When Great Britain's Eve Muirhead missed a come-around in the seventh end, Jones made two perfect shots to shut the door.
Muirhead pressed again in the ninth and Jones answered with a tap against two that essentially put the game away.
"We knew we needed two wins and we came out with two wins," Jones said. "It was a marvellous Monday."
'19 ends of very good curling'
By downing the ROC and Great Britain, they seem to be back on track.
"Today we eliminated all the bad ends," Jones said. "I thought we had 19 ends of very good curling, so that was the difference.
"We just eliminated those bad shots and made some big shots when we needed them."
A fourth loss for Jones would be a major blow to her chances of making the four-team playoff cut.
Canada's schedule improves over the second half of the competition, but the team is still essentially in must-win mode.
Canada will get back on the ice when they face the U.S. on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, followed by a date with China on Wednesday.
The Canadians close out their round-robin schedule Thursday against Denmark. You can watch every game of the tournament live or on demand on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app, or on CBC Gem.
"We've been in situations where we've started a little slow and climbed our way back," Canada lead Dawn McEwen said. "This is just another one of those situations."
In other results, Sweden's Anna Hasselborg edged Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni 6-5 in an extra end. The Swiss remained in first place at 5-1 ahead of Sweden, Japan and the United States.
Denmark topped Russia 10-5 and South Korea doubled Japan 10-5.
WATCH: The evolution of Jennifer Jones:
WATCH | That Curling Show: Team Jones isn't afraid of an uphill battle:
With files from CBC Sports
