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Canada improves to 4-1 with win over Germany at mixed doubles world championship

Canada downs Germany at mixed doubles worlds

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Canada's Joanne Courtney and Reid Carruthers rallied from a three-point deficit with two ends to play to record a 10-6 win over Germany Tuesday night at the world mixed doubles curling championship.

The Canadians trailed 6-3 going into the seventh end against the German tandem of Julia Meissner and Andy Buttner (2-3), but scored four in the seventh end then stole three more in the eighth for their fourth victory in five games.

The victory left Canada (4-1) tied for second place in Group D with the Czech Republic's Zuzana Hajkova and Tomas Paul, with the Czechs holding the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of their win over Canada on Monday.

Setting the pace is the United States sibling act of Becca and Matt Hamilton (5-0), who handed the Czechs their first loss on Tuesday night.

Canada was heaving a sigh of relief after the escape act against Germany.

"We were not playing well early in that game, that's for sure," said Carruthers, of Winnipeg. "I definitely would have taken about five or six throws back that I could have put in better spots. But we took a couple deep breaths after the sixth end and said, look, it's time to battle and we had a really, really good seventh end, which gave us the momentum and we had a really good eighth end as well."

The Germans had taken control with three in the fourth end and a sixth-end deuce as Canada was struggling with rock placement.

"An end can turn around in one shot. You can be set up and things look great, and then all of a sudden you're in a pile of trouble," said Edmonton's Courtney. "We're really happy with our perseverance tonight. We stayed in the moment, nobody freaked out out there, just totally invested in the process and happy to come out with the win."

Canada plays England's sibling team of Anna and Ben Fowler (3-2) on Thursday morning before closing out round robin play in the afternoon draw against the U.S. The top three teams in each of the five round-robin pools, along with the fourth-place team with the best Draw Shot Challenge distance, will make the single-knockout playoffs.

The results in Lethbridge will help determine the seven countries that will join host South Korea when mixed curling makes its Olympic debut at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

The Canadian Press