Canada’s Team Einarson completes perfect opening day at 2026 BKT World Women’s Championship

In a three-minute span Saturday night at Calgary’s WinSport Event Centre, Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson put together a pair of shots that defined the word “team”.

Both required precise throwing, sweeping and line-calling, and they played the biggest role in propelling Einarson, vice-skip/third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess, alternate Krysten Karwacki, team coach Reid Carruthers, national coach Viktor Kjell to an 11-3 win over Team Delaney Strouse of the United States.

 

The win capped a perfect 2-0 opening day at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pharmasave, for Canadian champions from Gimli, Man.

 

The shots, in the fourth end, were both delivered by Einarson, and required exact sweeping judgment from the front end of Birchard and Burgess, with Sweeting calling perfect line instructions — the first, a short raise tap, rolling the shooter buried behind a corner guard, and then the second (following Strouse’s last shot wrecking on a guard), a difficult come-around tap to remove a buried U.S. stone to break a 1-1 tie and score a game-changing three.

 

“Absolutely, they’re both pretty clutch shots and really needed them to set up the three,” said Einarson. “It kind of came out of nowhere. It’s so important to make those clutch shots and (especially) when they’re team shots like that. Val called it perfect and Karlee swept (the last shot) and just held it (on line). It was a great team shot.”

 

Team U.S.A. would respond with a deuce in the fifth end to cut the lead, and had the Canadians on the run in the sixth until Einarson made a wonderful in-off takeout to remove a buried stone and score a deuce to restore the three-point lead.

 

“I think any time you get an opportunity like that, I think you have to take it,” said Sweeting. “That’s the key to winning championships. It’s definitely something we want to keep doing going forward.”

 

An end later, Strouse’s last-rock potential double takeout for two was light and ended up promoting a Canadian stone into scoring position as part of a stolen four that put the game out of reach.

 

It was a nice end to a strong opening day for the home team, agreed Sweeting.

 

“I thought that they were really good team games,” she said. “I thought we had some really good sweeps and figured out the line really good, so I think it was a really good start. I know there’s some (shots) that each of us want back, but I think we learned and then made the next one, so that was good.”

 

In general, there were nothing but positives for the Canadian team after Day 1, but, noted Einarson, there is an abundance of work yet to be done before any kind of real celebration takes place.

 

“We played great in both games, but you know this is a long event and we’re going to have some tough games ahead of us,” she said. “We’re just taking one game at a time.

 

“There’s a few things we’d like to tweak going into tomorrow’s game and we’re still learning and figuring out the ice. But I think we’ve we’re trending in the right direction.”

 

In Saturday night’s other games, South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim (1-0) raced to a 14-5 victory over Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini (0-1); Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller (1-1) shaded China’s Team Rui Wang (1-1) 6-5; and Denmark’s Team Madeleine Dupont (1-0) scored deuces in the ninth and 10th ends for an 11-7 win over Australia’s Team Helen Williams (0-1).

 

Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa (1-0), Turkey’s Team Dilsat Yildiz (1-0), Norway’s Team Torlid Bjoernstad (0-1), Scotland’s Team Fay Henderson (0-1) and Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranaa (0-1) all had byes on Saturday night.

 

The 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship continues with draws Sunday at 8:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times Mountain).

 

Team Canada’s only game on Sunday will be at 1:30 p.m. against Team Rui Wang of China.

 

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/.