Canada’s Team Einarson shades Denmark to stay perfect at 2026 BKT World Championship

It was exactly the kind of game Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson was looking for at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pharmasave.

Facing Team Madeleine Dupont of Denmark Monday afternoon at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary, Einarson’s Canadian champs from Gimli, Man., were pushed extremely hard before pulling out a 9-6 victory.

With the win, Einarson, vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess, alternate Krysten Karwacki, team coach Reid Carruthers, national coach Viktor Kjell improved to 4-0 in the 12-team round robin, tied with the surprising Turkish team skipped by Dilsat Yildiz.

It was a duel between the skips, with Einarson finishing with a game shooting percentage of 92 and Dupont not far behind at 86.

“I knew it was going to be a great game,” said Einarson. “We’ve played them before; I know this is a new lineup, but they played phenomenal and Madeleine made some really great shots; they played unreal.

“It’s not like we played bad; we played really well, too. It’s good to have games like that that test you and that make you make those clutch shots when you need them. We did that when we needed them.”

The Danes — shortstaffed when second/vice-skip Katrine Schmidt had to leave the game with an illness after five ends (they didn’t bring an alternate) — had tied the game 6-6 through nine ends when Dupont made a tricky angle double-tap to push a Canadian stone off the button and score a single.

But their odds of a winning steal were significantly reduced when lead My Larsen hogged her first stone of the end, and ultimately Einarson didn’t need to throw her last stone to score three and secure the victory.

The win was valuable in the standings, of course, but, suggested Sweeting, so was going all 10 ends for the first time since Draw 1 on Saturday afternoon.

“I think you want to know what the ice is doing in the last half and have that pressure,” she said. “I think it’s good and we expect to have close games like that against all the good teams here. We feel like we’re doing a lot of good things well and just have to keep that going.”

The Canadians got the early jump on a precise tap to score two in the first, following Dupont’s perfect hit-and-roll buried behind a corner guard, but Denmark tied it immediately, and after forcing Canada to a single in the third, Dupont made a terrific angle-raise double takeout to score a go-ahead deuce in the fourth.

Einarson manufactured a skip’s deuce in response, making a perfect split to sit second and third with her first, and when Dupont couldn’t roll her shooter on her open hit, it left Einarson with an open hit of her own to score two and retake the lead.

“We could have played the runback (on the stone that ended up being split into the rings) but I just said (to Einarson), ‘You know, if we get ours into a good spot, I think we’re going to have a chance at two,’ ” said Sweeting. “Kerri made it perfect; we had seen that line a couple times before (and) Kerri’s just dialled in on those in-between shots and it was well executed.”

In the other Monday afternoon games, Turkey prevailed 9-4 in an early showdown between unbeaten teams, beating Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa (3-1) 9-4; China’s Team Rui Wang (2-3) scored back-to-back three-enders in the seventh and eighth ends in a 10-3 triumph over Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini (1-3); and South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim (2-2) stole one in the 10th end for an 8-7 win over Norway’s Team Torlid Bjoernstad (1-4).

Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller (3-1), Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana (2-2), Australia’s Team Helen Williams (1-3), Scotland’s Team Fay Henderson (1-3) and Team Delaney Strouse (1-3) of the United States all had byes on Monday afternoon.

The 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship continue Monday with a draw at 7 p.m. (all times Mountain).

Team Canada has a pair of games on the docket on Tuesday, taking on Italy at 9 a.m., and then Switzerland at 7 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide coverage of all Team Canada games, and all playoff games, at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the broadcast schedule.

For ticket information for the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2026worldwomen/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2026worldwomen/nouvelles/