Canadian playoff hopes still alive after 2 wins at wheelchair curling worlds

After losing three straight games at the world wheelchair curling championship, Canada rebounded in a big way on Wednesday to keep its playoff hopes alive.

Skip Mark Ideson's team dominated South Korea 8-2 and then cruised to an 8-3 win over Slovakia. Canada has a record of 5-4 and is now tied with Norway for the sixth and final playoff position. The Canadians will play two games on Thursday against Latvia and Italy, which are near the bottom of the standings.

"It was very much needed," Ideson said in a news release. "If we're going to make the playoffs, we needed to win these games." 

Canada started the day against South Korea with the hammer in hand and quickly got out to a 1-0 lead. After stealing one in the second, South Korea began to rally and eventually tied it after three ends. After that, Ideson and his team took over got up 8-2 which lead to South Korea conceding in the seventh end.

The Canadian rink continued to dominate against Slovakia. After being blanked in the first end, Canada stole points in the next four ends, scoring a total of eight before Slovakia got on the board with two in the sixth.

Slovakia stole a single in the seventh, but with Canada up five and the hammer in hand, Slovakia conceded the game.

"Coming off lots of time off, we're slowly improving and we're trying to take advantage of the key moments in the games," Idesdon said. "Some we've let slip away already. So we're just gonna keep working on that and keep working towards playing on the weekend."