Music: {allcanada} CANADIAN RINKS GO WINLESS ON FIRST DAY OF WORLD JUNIORS

Saturday, March 5, 2011

{allcanada} CANADIAN RINKS GO WINLESS ON FIRST DAY OF WORLD JUNIORS

PERTH -- It was a slow start to the world junior curling championships for Canadians Trish Paulsen and Braeden Moskowy on Saturday.

Moskowy's Regina rink lost its first match of the men's event 9-7 to Norway in 11 ends, before falling to Sweden 6-5 in the evening draw.

Meanwhile, Paulsen's Saskatoon rink lost its opener 9-2 to Sweden on the women's side.

Against Norway, Moskowy was heavy with his final stone, leaving Norway with a simple draw for two and the win.

With the game against Sweden tied at 4-4 and Canada holding last stone advantage, Moskowy was heavy with his final draw to give Sweden a single steal and a 5-4 win.

"This is probably the worst day of my career. We wanted to come in and have a strong first day, but there's nothing we can do about it now," Moskowy said. "When you're playing against good teams like Sweden, all you can ask for is a shot to win. We gave ourselves that, but unfortunately I did not execute it and that's too bad."

Paulsen, meanwhile, says her team has had trouble settling in.

"The girls struggled a little bit and I struggled a little bit," she said. "They had trouble in judging weight and finding our weight.

"That was tough and unfortunate. The ice is a little different to what we're used to basically, so we're just trying to adjust to that -- first day problems."

Sweden blew open a 4-2 contest with five in the seventh end. Canada will look to rebound against Norway in Draw 2 action Sunday.

In other opening-round women's action, Scotland beat Norway 10-2 in eight ends, Russia earned a 7-3 win over Switzerland, the U.S. dispatched France 12-2 and Japan got past the Czech Republic 7-5.

Other Draw 2 action on the men's side saw Scotland down Switzerland 7-6, Finland beat China 9-6, Denmark defeat the Czech Republic 8-3 and Norway top the U.S. 9-3.

Norway and Scotland lead the men's standings at 2-0, followed by China, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. at 1-1. Canada and the Czech Republic sit at 0-2.

Despite trailing in the standings, Moskowy is optimistic about his rink's chances against Switzerland in Draw 3 on Sunday.

"We're not playing badly and we ran into two really good teams," Moskowy said. "(Sunday's) a huge game. We're playing against the defending world champions, so we're going to come out and play a lot better."