It's deja vu all over again for Canada/Sweden at Czech Open

The opening draw of the 2009 Czech Open in Prague matched the 2009 Worlds finalists and Canada again scored 9 to win. Canada went out to an early 6-0 lead, taking 2 with the hammer and stealing 3 and 1 before Sweden got on the board with 2 before the half-time break.

Whatever caoch Tomas Nordin told his team seemed to work as Sweden made the scoreboard more respectable with single steals in the 5th and 6th, but a 3 for Canada in the 7th brought the match to an early 9-4 conclusion.

"Fast start, were slower the two ends after the break - ice was patchy and we changed our game to deal with the conditions," texted Team Leader Wendy Morgan. Before play, coaches approached the organizers and requested that the matches originally scheduled for 6 ends and 80 minutes, be extended to 8 ends with a bell at two hours, closer to the Paralympics format.

In other games, Norway, whose coach told me prior to the tournament start that his team were on an upward trajectory but that he didn't want them to peak before Vancouver, had a steal of 4 against Switzerland but were only able to score in two of the seven ends played, losing 9-6.

Germany overpowered Czech 2, opening with a 4 then stealing multiple points each of the next four ends, running out 13-2 winners. Finland, who have yet to appear on the World stage, tied 6-6 with Czech 1.

CANADA           2  3  1  0  0  0  3  x  9
SWEDEN           0  0  0  2  1  1  0  x  4

NORWAY           0  0  0  2  4  0  0  x  6
SWITZERLAND      1  2  3  0  0  2  1  x  9

GERMANY          4  2  2  2  3  0  x  x  13

CZECH  2         0  0  0  0  0  2  x  x   2

FINLAND          3  1  1  0  1  0  0  x   6
CZECH 1          0  0  0  4  0  1  1  x   6

Bruno Yizek, Canada's 5th, did not play. He will replace Sonja Gaudet at lead in tomorrow morning's draw against Finland.

Pool A

Norway - R. Lorensen , G. Skogstad , J. Stordahl , L. Tystad , A. M. Samdal 

Switzerland - M. Villars , C. Hüttenmoser , A. Kehrli, M. Bolliger
Germany - C. Steger , C. Totzauer, J. Gäbel, M. Sieger, J. Jäger
Czech 2 - O. Vikturnová , Š. Beneš , O. Kříž , J. Coufal , J. Břinčilová , L. Procházka


Pool B

Canada - J. Armstrong , D. Neighbour , I. Forrest , S. Gaudet , B. Yizek
Sweden - A. Wilhelm, P. Burman, G. Ikonen, J. Jungnell, P. Kallin
Finland - R. Särösalo, M. Karjalainen, V. Hellman, T. Aarnikka, S. Räsänen 

Czech 1 - R. Musílek, M. Charvátová , P. Gottlieb , R. Pokorný , M. Tluk



Draw 2  November 28  9.15am local time
CAN – FIN    SWE – CZE A    NOR – GER    SUI – CZE B

Draw 3  November 28  2.30pm local time
NOR – CZE B    SUI – GER    CAN – CZE A    SWE – FIN