Jennifer Jones hits world curling playoffs on high note

Canada cruised to an 8-5 victory over Japan Thursday at the world women's curling championship in Sapporo, Japan to complete its round-round at 9-2 and set up a meeting with top-ranked Switzerland in the 1-2 Page playoff.

Winnipeg skip Jennifer Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen trailed Japan after the opening end, but went ahead to stay with deuces in both the second and third ends.

Jones had earlier secured a guaranteed playoff spot with a 7-5 extra ends win over Germany's Daniela Driendl.

That earlier victory over the Germans gave Canada sole possession of second place in the 12-team round-robin standings and secured a spot in the Page playoff 1-2 game.

Canada will compete in that game on Saturday against Switzerland, which topped the standings at 10-1 after defeating Sweden 7-5 in the final round-robin draw.

"We're really excited about that; it was our goal at the beginning of the week, to be in the one-two game," said Jones following the victory over Germany.

"We won't have [first-end] hammer [due to losing to the Swiss on Wednesday night], but we're in that game, and we feel really good with the ice conditions. We just have to be a little sharper in a couple moments, but other than that, we're really happy with how we're playing right now."

The final draw also saw Russia defeat China 11-6 to clinch third place and a spot in the 3-4 Page playoff on Friday.

Scotland defeated China 9-4 in a tiebreaker Friday morning to earn a playoff berth.

A Canadian team hasn't won gold at this event since Jones did so in 2008 at Vernon, B.C. The five-time national champion made her world championship debut in 2005 and won a silver medal in 2010.

Canada leads all countries with 15 gold medals and 31 podium appearances at the world championship since 1979.

Sweden is next with eight gold and 23 total medals.