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PINEROLO, Italy (CP) - Canada's Shannon Kleibrink rebounded from an opening day loss in curling at the Olympic Games to beat Cassie Johnson of the U.S. 11-5 on Tuesday.
Canada (1-1) put the game away early with five points in the first end. Second Glenys Bakker helped set up the big end with cross-the-house hit and roll behind cover for Canada to sit two behind a guard.
Johnson, the runner-up at last year's world championship, wasn't able to generate a big end to get back in the game. Canada scored another three in the sixth end for a 10-3 lead and the U.S. (0-2) shook hands after eight.
"We got a little lucky on the first end and it's really, really hard (for the U.S.) to come back from that," Kleibrink said. "If the ice had been more swingy, it would have been easier to recover, but when you are five points down it's almost impossible."
Alternate Sandra Jenkins subbed in for third Amy Nixon at the beginning of the seventh end.
"We like to get five players in the match when we can, so we decided to give Amy a little break," Kleibrink said.
Canada lost a hard-fought 7-5 game to world champion Anette Norberg on Monday and was to meet Russia's Ludmila Privivkova later Tuesday.
Russia scored three in the final end for a 7-5 win over Japan in the first match for both teams. In other action second draw action, Britain beat Switzerland 5-4 and Norway defeated Sweden 10-3.
Brad Gushue's team from Newfoundland and Labrador was facing Sweden's Peja Lindholm on Tuesday after opening with a 10-5 win over Germany's Andy Kapp on Monday.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
