PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — Canada's Kerri Einarson was still hunting for a playoff berth at the women's world curling championship after letting a golden chance slip away Thursday.
Giving up single-point steals in the 10th and 11th ends to South Korea in an 8-7 loss left the host country with work to do on the final day of the round robin Friday.
"For sure, we control our own destiny," Einarson said. "We'll just park this one."
A 9-3 win over the United States earlier Thursday for a fifth straight win — their fourth was a forfeit by Scotland — kept Canada in contention to be among the six teams playing into the weekend for a world title Sunday.
Defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni (10-0) was assured of finishing first in the standings and earning one of two byes to Saturday's semifinals.
Sweden's Anna Hasselborg (8-3) also had a playoff berth locked in. Einarson and South Korea's EunJung Kim were tied for third at 7-3.
Denmark, Japan and the United States were all 6-4 ahead of Germany and Norway tied at 5-5.
Canada caps the preliminary round against the Germans on Friday morning and the Czech Republic (2-8) at night.
The Scots withdrew Sunday because four players tested positive for COVID-19.
The top two seeds Friday get semifinal byes with the third through sixth teams playing off earlier that day to join them.
Einarson's Gimli Curling Club foursome had settled into its ice reads and execution in Monday's win over Denmark and rode the momentum of a win streak into Thursday evening's draw.
But the Canadians made a hash of Thursday's extra end. They failed to peel guards to open up the house for Einarson's last shot. The skip faced a difficult tap behind a guard for the win and rolled a hair wide for a loss.
"We just had a super-sloppy extra and let it slip," third Val Sweeting said. ""We need to chat about things, why we didn't have as good a handle on the ice that game.
"We didn't know that we would have had a playoff spot if we won, so that wasn't in our minds at all. It's still in our hands. We've just got to come out sharp tomorrow morning."
Trailing South Korea 5-4 after seven ends, the Canadians turned the tide scoring three in the eighth. Coming home up a point with hammer, Einarson's shooter rolled wide on a hit for the win in the 10th to give up a steal.
"It just ran straight," Einarson said. "I was confident going into 11 and then we just had a sloppy 11th.
"We're playing well. We started off slow, but we picked it up."
Einarson and company opened last year's world championship 1-5 in Calgary's curling bubble.
Fuelled by fatalism, they won six of seven to squeak into the sixth and final playoff spot before losing out.
After a 2-2 start on opening weekend, their road in Prince George has been less of a white-knuckle ride.
Einarson appeared tense about her team's lack of finish, however, in Thursday's post-game interviews.
"It wasn't our best game overall," Sweeting said.
While Canadian championships feature tiebreaker games when teams are tied for the last playoff spot, the world championships do not.
If two countries are tied Friday, the winner of their round-robin matchup ranks higher. If three or more teams are tied, their record of the games between them provides seedings.
If that doesn't resolve the deadlock, the average distance of all pre-game draws which determine which team gets hammer are used for ranking.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
