Olympic Women’s Champion Jen Dodds and World Men’s Champion Bruce Mouat bounced back with a crucial 7-6 win over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg and Oskar Erksson in a high class encounter on the penultimate day of round robin matches at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Fredericton.
With four Olympic medallists on the ice, the match very much lived up to expectations and the Scots came back from a two shot deficit at the midway break to clinch a hard fought win that keeps both their play-off and Olympic qualification hopes alive.
In what always looked a potentially pivotal match for both pairs, Dodds and Mouat had lost their previous two matches and lost the pre-match draw shot challenge to start without last stone advantage.
They managed to force the Swedes to take just one at the opening end, but after scoring two at the next to move in front, they then conceded a two and a steal of one at the fourth to fall 4-2 behind.
A well worked three at the fifth end got them right back in the match, but the highlight of their performance came at the next end as, with the Swedes looking set for a big score, Dodds executed a round the horn triple takeout with Scotland's final stone to leave 2018 Olympic women's champion skip Hasselborg with no choice but to draw for one and level the scores. 
Eriksson, vice skip of the reigning Olympic men's champions, achieved a similar outcome at the next end, removing three Scottish stones and almost all four that had been counting, but after Hasselborg narrowly missed a double takeout attempt with their final stone, Dodds was able to draw for the two that put Scotland into a 7-5 lead.
The drama did not end until the final stone of the match however, Hasselborg's attempt to shake things up only just failing to get her team the two they required to keep the match alive down an extra end.
“It was a very good match and we knew that we were going to have to play well to get the win,” said Mouat.
“Some very key shots in the second half helped to pull us across the line, which was important.
"Jen’s triple was probably the best shot I have seen this week.
“I've played against Oskar a lot in mixed doubles and men’s and you expect him to make those shots so its important to keep calm once you have seen him making those shots and that is exactly what we did.
"We then made Anna play a tough double across the house and we were lucky enough to still have a shot for two at the seventh, before we left a tough shot for Anna to win the game there.
"It was definitely there for two and she just needed to be a wee bit thinner to get that shot for two, so we were fortunate in that she was a hair thick on it and it gave us the force.”
Following their defeats to Korea and Italy, the Scottish pair had gone into the match fully aware of all implications as they battle for Olympic qualifying points, as well as this title.
"It was just really important and proud we got across the line, but we've still some work to do," said Mouat, ahead of the day's second match against Germany.
“That was important for a lot of reasons to try and qualify our team into the play-offs, but not only that it has some implications on the Olympic qualifying spot, so its important that we win the next two games to put us into a good spot heading into the play-offs hopefully.
“We will just have to wait and see how everything lies at the end of the round robin to hopefully have that spot for Team GB.”
Scotland will meet Germany at 10pm (BST) tonight and then face hosts Canada in their final round robin match tomorrow evening at 6pm (BST).
Meanwhile, Scotland’s Orrin Carson and Robyn Munro have made their trip across the Atlantic to compete in the World Open U25 Mixed Doubles Championship (1-4 May)to help them prepare for their campaign at the inaugural Booster Juice World Junior Championships hosted in Edmonton from 6-11 May.
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
Thursday 1 May
Session 17- 6pm (BST)
Scotland – Canada
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 