Canada’s Kerri Einarson and her team came to play Friday night at the World Women’s Curling Championship with a bye to the semifinals on the line.

The crew from Gimli, Man., shot 94 per cent, tying their best team average of the week, in a 6-5 victory over Japan at Calgary’s WinSport Event Centre.

Two games over the next two days now remain for Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess as they await the winner of a qualification game between Japan and Türkiye in Saturday’s semifinals, followed by Sunday’s medal round.

The bye is a new path for Einarson, who had to go through the qualification round in her three previous appearances at the women's worlds. The semifinal is the hurdle, having lost in 2022 and 2023 en route to bronze medals both times.

Sweeting stepped it up, firing a game-high 99 per cent after shooting in the 70s earlier in the week. Burgess was also stellar at 98 per cent and is first among all players at her position through the tournament at 93.6 per cent.

The game didn’t start so well as Einarson attempted to blank the first end, but her shooter stopped short and stuck around for a single. That quickly turned into a 2-0 lead, though, as Japanese skip Satsuki Fujisawa was unable to navigate her last rock in the second and rubbed Einarson’s rock to give up a steal.

After Fujisawa drew for a single in the third, Einarson blanked twice before pulling off a fantastic triple takeout to score two more points in the sixth to hold a 4-1 advantage.

The two-time Olympic medallist Fujisawa hit for a deuce in seven to close within one, but Einarson took two right back in eight to make it 6-3. It could have been more as Einarson was looking at possibly scoring five to put the game out of reach, however, the rock she needed to disappear jammed on the side.

Fujisawa made a raise against four counters to land on the button for a single. That handed Einarson the hammer for the final frame. Facing two on her last, Einarson just needed to make one go away.

Einarson finished round-robin play with a 10-2 record, second overall behind Switzerland (11-1).

Both of Canada’s losses to Switzerland and Norway came in extra ends, with the upset 10-6 decision against the young Norwegian club coming on Thursday night to cap a grinding three-day stretch of consecutive morning-and-evening draw double-headers and little sleep between each set.

At least Canada had Friday morning off before facing Australia and Japan in back-to-back sessions to wrap up round-robin play. Canada breezed by last-place Australia in an 11-2 rout that ended in only six ends, banking some energy for the evening match against Japan.

With the bye to semis secured, Canada earned even more rest with their next game not until 4 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET).

From two games a day down to two games in two days.

• Statistically speaking, Canada is first among all teams in force efficiency at 68 per cent and in fewest steals allowed at five. The team also sits second in overall shooting percentage at 87 per cent and hammer efficiency at 50 per cent (to be fair, they’re just one point behind Switzerland in that department).

• Japan’s alternate Tori Koana was on the ice again Friday night, taking over for longtime third Chinami Yoshida for a fifth time this week. It’s surprising to see that, considering Fujisawa, Yoshida, second Yumi Suzuki and lead Yurika Yoshida (Chinami’s sister) have played together for over a decade, earning silver at the women’s worlds in 2016, plus Olympic bronze at PyeongChang 2018 and silver at Beijing 2022. Yoshida played in four of the team’s first five games before alternating back and forth with Koana. For what it’s worth, the team was 6-1 with Yoshida in the lineup and 3-2 with Koana.

• Xenia Schwaller and her Swiss squad have been making the most of their opportunity at their first World Women’s Curling Championship. Schwaller upended four-time world champ Silvana Tirinzoni in the best-of-three final at the Swiss curling championships to earn the spot. Tirinzoni was competing in nationals just days after earning Olympic silver in Milano Cortina, though. Schwaller leads all teams with an 88.8 per cent shooting average and a 51 per cent hammer efficiency. Switzerland is also second behind Canada in force efficiency at 66 per cent and fewest steals allowed at six.

• While Canada will play the winner between Japan and Türkiye in the semifinals, Switzerland will face the winner between Sweden and South Korea on the other side of the bracket.

• Hooray for Türkiye, which qualified for the first time at the women’s worlds. Fate was in the hands of skip Dilsat Yildiz on Friday night for the sixth and final spot. The team just had to win over Italy to get in and didn’t have to worry about results elsewhere across the sheets. Italy was still in the mix as well, but needed to beat Türkiye and have China lose to Norway. Meanwhile, China needed to win over Norway and have Italy defeat Türkiye as well. China did its part, winning 5-3, but destiny was out of its control, counting on Italy to play the spoiler. It almost happened with Stefania Constantini scoring three in the eighth end to tie it, but Yildiz took two in the ninth and stole one in the 10th to win 10-7 after Constantini flashed on her last. Yildiz came close before, one win away from qualifying in 2023 with a 6-6 record, but had a combined six wins over the past two women’s worlds.

Lead photo courtesy of Curling Canada/Michael Burns.