Early struggles send Peterman and Gallant to second straight defeat in mixed doubles curling

For the first time in five games, Team Canada failed to score in the first end and ultimately suffered a second straight mixed doubles curling defeat Saturday at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games.

Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat of Great Britain scored three in the first end en route to a 7-5 win over Canada’s team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant. The victory improved Britain’s record to 6-0.

“It’s kind of like going from your municipal golf course to the greens at the U.S. Open,” Gallant said of the team’s struggles with the ice. “It was a much different speed and a much different surface. Took us a little bit of time to adjust. It was a little bit quicker and a little bit straighter. We were trying, really trying to adjust, but they got that jump on us and it was just a challenge.”

Playing in the old Cortina Olympic Stadium, built for the Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games, Dodds made a tight runback to eliminate a lone Canadian stone in the four foot to score the three.

The loss dropped Canada to 3-2 and put the Alberta pair back into a tight battle to be one of the four teams that will advance out of the 10-team round robin into Monday’s semifinals. Peterman and Gallant now sit third behind Great Britain and the United States team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin (4-0) who handed Canada its first loss 24 hours earlier.

Defending Olympic and reigning World champion Italy (Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner), who lost to Canada on Day 2, are at 3-1. Sweden (Isabella Wranå and Rasmus Wranå) are at 3-3 and Switzerland (Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann and Yannick Schwaller) now 2-3 after losing 13-7 to Sweden in the only other morning game.

Peterman and Gallant will play Sweden Sunday afternoon and meet Switzerland in the final round robin draw Monday morning.

Peterman, from Red Deer, Alta., who throws first and last stones for Canada, had a chance to get a deuce for Canada in the second end, but her final rock wrecked on a guard and the team had to settle for a single.

Mouat and Dodds, the 2021 World mixed doubles champions, were the sharper team throughout the game, especially in the early ends. Dodds, who won the four-player women’s gold medal at Beijing 2022 with skip Eve Muirhead, used last stone in the third to execute a tight, flat in-off to kick out Peterman’s counter and give Great Britain a deuce and a 5-1 lead.

“That’s a really talented team” said Gallant. “I think Bruce is arguably the best curler in the world right now, the No. 1 men’s team in the world the last two years. And Jenn is an Olympic gold medallist. That’s a really tough team to play.

“And the way they positioned some of their stones made our (shots) even more precise so when you’re just trying to figure out the ice and you’re trying to be precise it’s a bit of a challenge.”

Even with a fourth-end power play – where the Canadians get to place one stone in the side of the house behind a guard – didn’t turn any momentum. A perfect runback double by the 31-year-old Mouat, who always plays wearing a baseball cap, eliminated any chance Canada had to score more than a single.

Mouat and Dodds, who first met at the Gogar Park Curling Club in Edinburgh as young children in 2002 but didn’t team up for mixed doubles until the 2019-20 season, responded with two in the fifth. Two failed draw attempts — Gallant was heavy and Peterman light – left Dodds a routine tap back to score two for a commanding 7-2 lead.

Canada earned its only chance for a multiple scoring end in the sixth, looking at a potential four, until a crushing angled raise triple by Dodds ended that opportunity. Peterman was light on her last-rock draw and had to settle for only one.

“In the sixth we had a pretty good end setting up and if my last one curls an inch more,” said Gallant who looked frustrated at times in the game. “A good battle and we lost. We made a lot of good shots in the second half of that game and we made them earn it.”

Great Britain used its power play in the seventh, hoping to score and probably force Canada to concede, but the move backfired. Two uncharacteristic misses by Mouat and a nice draw by Peterman had Canada sitting two. Dodds had an easy draw to the full eight but slid into the back 12 and let Canada steal two and continue the game.

Canada’s struggles with the ice continued, however. After Gallant was heavy with one draw and light with another, Mouat doubled out both Canadian stones in the house and followed with another takeout to run Canada out of rocks.

It is something of an oddity that Peterman and Gallant are the second-best overall shooting team percentage-wise, going into Saturday’s game at 81.6 percent, yet they are last in the last rock draw, which determines first-end hammer. Only the United States had a better percentage at 84.4 while Mouat and Dodds were fifth at 76.5.

Those numbers flipped for Canada and Great Britain on Saturday, however. Dodds and Mouat, who will both move on the four-player championship once the mixed doubles is finished, improved their shooting to the mid 80s while Peterman and Gallant dropped to the low 70s.

The Canadians will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against Estonia.