Lester the dog was in the building at CN Centre Saturday afternoon and that was a comfort for American skip Cory Christensen to have that larger-than-life cardboard cutout of her family pet, a four-year-old golden retriever, in the crowd as her good-luck charm.
Locked in a tight battle with Sweden, Team USA was in good position to win its qualifying playoff for a spot in the semifinals. The Americans scored two in the eighth and stole another in the ninth for a 6-4 lead heading into the 10th end.
But Hasselborg, the 2018 Olympic champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Beijing had a few tricks up her sleeve and she made a miraculous angle-raise around a guard with no room to spare that left her shooter on the button, where it replaced the American stone. Christensen couldn’t get to it with her last shot and Sweden scored four for an 8-6 comeback victory and a berth in tonight’s semifinal against Switzerland.
For Linda Christensen, Cory’s mother from Duluth, Minn., it was gut-wrenching end to a wonderful week of great shot-making from the U.S. team. Her disappointment could be summed up in a word.
Doggonit!
“It was a good game, we knew it would probably come down to last shots and the last end didn’t quite play out the way we wanted it to but I’m proud of the girls,” said Linda. “Cory and the whole team played great, their numbers were pretty darn impressive, playing at this level.
“We were up two coming home without the hammer and I’m thinking we’re pretty good, guarding the crap out of rock on the one-foot. There were just too many rocks in play. They were worried more about guarding the one side and the only way Anna could have got at that shot rock was with that angle-raise.”
Linda made the 28-hour drive, 2,574-kilometre drive to Prince George from Duluth on her own last weekend. She had planned to come up with her brother, Mike Olson, but less than a day before she due to leave he tested positive for COVID. So it was just Linda and Lester on the trip and they had great driving conditions until the last two hours when they hit a snowstorm at McBride. It got so bad Linda was considering turning around but she lucked out when she caught up to a plough truck who cleared the way to Prince George.
Many of the fans at CN Centre this week have been wondering who the mystery dog is. The idea got started when Cory’s fiancé Steve brought the Lester cutout to one of Linda’s afternoon curling games in Duluth and he put it against the glass and when Cory subbed into the game later, she saw it and burst into tears. It was decided, then and there, Lester was going with her to Prince George as her Minnesota mascot.
Linda had great fun taking her favourite hound wherever she went, and most of her week was spent at the rink. Curling fans gathered around Lester in the stands for photos and she took him to The Patch for his first nightclub visit. One of the team members used her phone camera to catch Canadian skip Kerri Einarson on the ice with a pained expression on her face with Lester looming large over her shoulder peering at her through the glass.
Wayne and Arlene Anderson, the parents of 27-year-old twin sisters Sarah and Taylor Anderson, who played third and lead for Team USA, came all the way from Philadelphia to watch their girls in action. Originally Winchester, Ont., near Ottawa area, Wayne and Arlene grew up as curlers and it was only natural all five of their daughters followed suit, becoming the young stars of the club learning the game on the two sheets of ice that make up the Philadelphia Curling Club. The family of curlers grew up in the appropriately-named Philly suburb of Broomall and also spent time living in the Caribbean.
Wayne Anderson coached four of his daughters (Sarah, Taylor, Emily and Courtney) on a junior team at the U.S. nationals in Philadelphia. Sarah and Taylor went on to win silver at the 2016 world junior championships and were crowned U.S. women’s champions in 2019 with Christensen and second Vicky Persinger - the same lineup that finished fifth in the round robin with an 8-4 record this week in Prince George.
“It wasn’t much of an option for (the twins), we started the Philadelphia junior program with their older sisters and it just kept developing,” said Wayne. “By the time Sarah and Taylor came along we had a pretty good program going.”
The older Anderson sisters were the club’s junior pioneers and developed into national-level curlers, which helped pave the way for Sarah and Taylor to take it even further.
“When juniors are in a club where the previous juniors have gotten to nationals and worlds, they see it is an achievable goal,” said Wayne. “If they did it, why not me. Sarah and Taylor are the only ones out of the Philadelphia area that got to (women’s worlds).”
While this was Christensen’s first world women’s appearance, the Andersons and Persinger represented the U.S. 2019 at the women’s world event in Silkeborg, Denmark.
The team finished second a the 2022 Olympic trials. Saturday’s loss to Sweden was tough to watch for the Andersons, a roller-coaster ride that got stuck at the bottom.
“My ribs were sore from holding my breath that long,” said Wayne. “It was really tense and I’m so proud of the team - really they controlled that game for so much of it, into the last end even. But when you’re playing Anna Hasselborg and that team you can never count your chickens too early and she made a fantastic shot to win it.”
“I’m proud that they made it this far,” added Arlene “They definitely belong here.”
Linda Christensen and the Andersons are still active curlers and they appreciated how keen and predictable the ice conditions have been throughout the week on the four sheets of arena ice at CN Centre. Dave amd Mike Merklinger and their ice maintenance crew earned their rave reviews from the three American parents, who are making their first visit to the city this week.
“We’ve really enjoyed our time here in Prince George, the volunteers have been fantastic, just so friendly,” said Wayne. “To have such good ice from start to finish, that just makes for the type of curling we’ve seen here with great shots being made all across the sheets.”
They plan to return to Canada to watch their kids in action at the Champions Cup in Olds, Alta., May 3-8.
