Canada wins 2nd consecutive wheelchair curling bronze after defeating Slovakia

Canada's wheelchair curling team has won bronze for a second consecutive Paralympics.

The Canadians, led by skip Mark Ideson, co-flag bearer Ina Forrest, second Dennis Thiessen, fourth Jon Thurston and alternate Collinda Joseph, defeated Slovakia 8-3 in the bronze medal match Friday in Beijing.

Canada continues its streak of never missing the Paralympic podium in wheelchair curling, having won gold at Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014 before taking bronze at PyeongChang 2018.

"It feels fantastic," Forrest said, who has now reached the podium in all four of her Games appearances dating back to 2010. "I don't think it ever gets old winning a medal, same feelings, lots of emotions and pressures going into the game until the last seconds of it.

Three single steals for Canada, including back-to-back to open the game for the 2-0 lead, gave the Canadians a 4-3 advantage heading to the eighth end.

With Slovakia sitting two on skip stones, Canada's Thurston slipped past the guards and made the double takeout, as Canada laid three.

WATCH | Canada defeats Slovakia, defends wheelchair curling bronze:

On his final stone, Zaťko, who had struggled throughout the match, made a terrific draw to set up the possibility of an extra end.

With the hammer in the final end, Canada's Thurston had the last stone sneak past the guard for the takeout to score four and secure the victory. 

"It never gets old. Just to be bringing home some hardware, it's so special," Ideson said. "It sort of feels like a validation for all the work that's gone into it, the sacrifices that we've made along the way, in our families, at home, a lot of time on the road and a lot of time throwing rocks in the curling club.

"It's very special to take home a medal."

'Lucky Loonie' 

During Canada's first practice of the event, Ideson — the now three-time Paralympic medallist (1 gold, 2 bronze), placed a "Lucky Loonie" somewhere in the Sheet B ice.

Following the Canadian victory on the same sheet, the 45-year-old made sure to re-collect Canada's one-dollar coin.

"It's right here in my pocket," Ideson revealed, marking the third time he's completed the tradition at an event. "We had it hidden in a good little spot right by Sheet B and it brought us some luck today "A really close friend of my wife [gave it to us,] it's just such a cool tradition, and I'm really thankful.

"They'll just stay in my podium jackets and I will tell my kids to do whatever they want to do with my coins and jackets."

Both sides had already gone head-to-head during the round robin with Slovakia coming out on top 9-8.

Semifinal defeat to China

The loss was Canada's last before a semifinal defeat to China, as they were unable to repeat their opening draw win over the defending champions, losing 9-5 earlier on Friday.

The 7-3 victory over China earlier in the Games was the start of a four-game winning streak, before Canada dropped three straight and then won another three consecutive to make it into the semifinals as the fourth seed with a 7-3 record.

"China played really well, just really well against us," the Canadian skip said, following the semifinal match. "We got down early, missed a couple of shots in the third end that got us down. We tried to battle back, but China kept making shots. It was a tough loss."

WATCH | Canada falls to reigning champ China in semis:

With the score tied at 1-1 after two ends, China put the pressure on with three points on the board to go up 4-1.

Canada was able to quickly answer back with a two-point end, with help from Thurston who threw a draw on the final stone in the fourth.

In the fifth, a take-out on the final stone allowed China to add another three points and go up 7-3.

The host team followed that with a steal of two in the sixth to increase its lead to 9-3, as Canada continued to struggle to get it going offensively.

After putting up two points in the seventh, Canada was unable to bring themselves any closer in the eighth to salvage their opportunity to play for gold.

China will play Sweden in the gold medal game on Saturday at 1:30 a.m. ET.