Canada’s struggles continue with third straight loss in mixed doubles curling

Players like to say curling is a game of inches and that certainly was the case Saturday evening when Estonia handed Canada its third straight defeat in mixed doubles curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Unfortunately for Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, they were constantly on the wrong side of the inch while Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill were shooting with razor-like precision en route to an 8-6 victory.

It was up-weight shots by Kaldvee that started and ended the misery for Canada. The 31-year-old engineer executed a perfect hit and stick for three in the first end to put Canada in a deep hole and finished it in the eighth with a perfect triple kill for the win.

“A bad throw on my last stone in the first end, some regrets there,” Peterman said afterwards. “After that I thought we were giving everything a chance and throwing them how we wanted and really working on reading the ice. We were just on the wrong side of the inch, or just ticking or just hitting one millimetre thinner than we needed.

“One of those days where it was a bit of a grind. But we stuck in there and fought right until the end.”

The loss dropped Team Canada to 3-3 and leaves them little room for any more losses if they hope to make the four-team playoffs.

Estonia improved to 2-4. After four days of round robin play Great Britain (Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds) lead the standings at 7-0 followed by the United States (Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin) and Italy (Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner), both at 4-2; Sweden (Isabella Wranå and Rasmus Wranå) 4-3; Canada and Switzerland (Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann and Yannick Schwaller) both at 3-3.

“We’re still in the thick of it,” Gallant said of his team’s playoff chances. “Playing real good in the second half of the games. If we come out and play like that right out of the gate we’ll be in good shape.”

Canada plays Sweden in a key game Sunday morning. They finish the round robin with games against South Korea Sunday evening and Switzerland Monday morning.

For the second straight game, Canada surrendered three in the first end to put themselves into chase mode early. Starting without the last rock for the fifth time in six games Peterman and Gallant both had narrow misses to set the stage for Estonia.

Peterman wrecked on a guard with her final stone leaving Kaldvee a straight-forward short runback to count the three.

The husband-and-wife Canadian pair from Chestermere, Alta. continued to struggle with the ice or the rocks. That problem led to their loss earlier in the day, 7-5 to Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds of Great Britain.

An obviously frustrated Gallant slammed his brush on the ice after missing the first of his two costly misses in the second that allowed Estonia to bury two counters. Peterman’s last-rock try to draw the button was an inch wide and allowed Estonia to steal two more.

Kaldvee and Lill have focused solely on mixed doubles the last two seasons and it’s paid off. They won silver at the 2024 Worlds and made the semifinals in 2025 after beating Peterman and Gallant in the quarterfinals.

As Peterman and Gallant continued to have their shots missing by inches, Kaldvee and Lill didn’t let up on the pressure, stealing another one in the third when Peterman’s thin in-off attempt failed.

The first crack in Estonia’s precision appeared in the fourth, on a Canadian power play. Lill bounced off Gallant’s hidden counter to give Canada a chance to build the house. It was her first missed shot of the game. And when Kaldvee eliminated only one Canadian stone on her last-rock double attempt, the possibly of a multiple scoring end for Canada loomed.

Unfortunately for Team Canada, Peterman’s runback double was, again, off by an inch, got only one Estonia stone and Canada scored only two.  A slight over curl on Peterman’s final draw gave Kaldvee a chance for a double to score and she didn’t miss.

Team Canada finally cracked Estonia’s domination in the sixth to make things interesting. Peterman found the perfect weight and line for a difficult tap back to score three and suddenly put some pressure on Estonia.

But Kaldvee and Lill, the first curlers from Estonia to ever play in the Olympic Games, didn’t waver, scoring one in the seventh and then using their final stone secure the win.

In the other evening games, Switzerland beat Czechia (1-5) 10-3; Italy edged Norway (1-5) 6-5 and Korea (1-5) upset the U.S. 6-5.