A stunning recovery in the closing stages of their game with hosts Canada took Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat into second spot in their pool on completion of the round-robin stages of the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Fredericton and earned them the potentially crucial last stone advantage in the opening end of their quarter-final match.
The reigning women’s Olympic Champion and men’s World Champion looked to be in trouble when, already trailing, they gave away a steal of two at the fifth end to find themselves 5-2 behind and they were still three behind at 7-4 down as they started the last of the scheduled eight ends.
Their position looked even more unpromising as Dodds lined up her final shot with a well guarded Canadian stone sitting on the button, but they had given themselves a chance with the way that Mouat had rearranged the stones in the head with his previous delivery and Dodds then found the perfect angle to raise a Canadian guard into the house in a way that removed the shot stone and left all three Scottish stones counting in the four foot. 
At the final end they then applied sufficient pressure that Jocelyn Peterman was left with a tough draw to the button to win the match and while a measure was required after her near perfectly judged effort, it went Scotland’s way.
“It was a close game that first half and then I gave up a steal of two at the fifth end with a rogue shot, but It was just a case of getting our heads down and fighting from the fifth and sixth end onwards and we just concentrated on getting our two back in our powerplay,” said Dodds.
“That didn’t go totally according to plan, but we got our two back and then we just tried really hard to force in the powerplay and again a slight line call mistake gave them the chance for two and they capitalised on that.”
The way they turned things around at the final two ends then demonstrated their capacity to read the game.
“At the eighth end we got our stones in really good spots. We wanted to create some angles and Bruce’s last to create that angle was such a brilliant shot.
“We knew they were probably just going to guard it, so we were going through my last shot before she’d even played hers.
“I knew I was going to have that soft weight run at the end. It was on the nose and it was a pretty straight line, so it just had to curl a little and Bruce swept it so well, which was a great team shot.
“Going into the extra, especially in mixed doubles anything can happen and we got our first one in a good spot, then tried to capitalise on their slight mistake, but she was so close with her last one.
“We knew she hadn’t really played that side of the sheet, but she was so close, however we came away with a really good victory.” 
While both teams had already known they would be involved in the play-offs, they had been playing for second spot behind unbeaten Italy, with the winners facing the team which finished third in the other pool, which was yet to be decided with an astonishing five teams all sharing second spot heading into the final round of matches.
“Momentum’s really important for us,” said Dodds..
“Looking ahead we don’t know who we’re playing in the qualification game yet, but coming second in our pool is great.
“We’ll have hammer for the play-off game and we’ve seen this week that having that wee head’s start can be such an advantage, so it was great to get that second spot.
“So far this week we have played some really top quality opposition and we know how we have to play to beat them, whoever we get in the qualification game.
“We have to play the exact same, so whoever we get we will be ready for them and we know the performances we have produced this week are up there with the top teams in both pools.”
Schedule:
Saturday 26 April
Session 1
Scotland – Netherlands 10-3
Session 3 –
Scotland – China 8-5
Sunday 27 April
Session 5 –
Scotland – Denmark 7-3
Monday 28 April
Session 7
Scotland – Finland 9-2
Session 9 – 10pm
Scotland – Korea 7-10
Tuesday 29 April
Session 11
Scotland – Italy 4-7
Wednesday 30 April
Session 13
Scotland – Sweden 7-6
Session 15 10pm (BST)
Scotland – Germany 7-1
Thursday 1 May
Session 17
Scotland – Canada 8-7 (EE)
Friday 2 May
2pm - Qualification Games
10pm - Relegation Games
10pm - Semi Finals
Saturday 3 May
1.30pm - Bronze Medal Game
6.00pm - Gold Medal Game
Watch streamed games on The Curling Channel
Team Scotland
Jen Dodds
Bruce Mouat
Ross Paterson – Team Coach
Greg Drummond – Olympic Head Coach
Images: Rob Blanchard Photography
