Canada advances to gold medal game after dramatic win against South Korea

CORTINA, Italy -Canada’s magical run in wheelchair curling continued Friday as it stole three points in the eighth and final end to defeat South Korea 8-7 and advance to the gold medal game at the Paralympic Winter Games.

With at least a silver medal secured, Canada is sure to reach the podium in all six Paralympic wheelchair curling events, the only country to do so. The Canadians won gold in 2006, 2010 and 2014 and bronze at the previous two Games.

Canada is also 10-0 overall in the tournament, the only team in Paralympic history to go undefeated through the preliminaries and semifinal.

‘’Amazing,’’ said lead Collinda Joseph of Stittsville, Ont. ‘’That was our goal all week to get to the gold medal game. We’ve made that happen. Now we have to finish the task of reaching the top of the podium.’’

It was the third time in the tournament that the Canadians came from behind in the eighth end. They also scored three in the eighth to beat Great Britain 5-4 and accomplished the same feat against Sweden in a 6-5 victory.

‘’We’re team that never gives up,’’ said Ideson. ‘’We keep learning through the game, keep talking, and sticking to our processes. It’s cliché but it works and we never feel we are out of it.’’

In Friday’s game, the situation seemed dire heading into the eighth end. South Korea held the hammer with a 7-5 lead. But all four Canadian players, Joseph, second Ina Forrest of Spallumcheen, B.C., third Jon Thurston of Dunsford, Ont., and skip Mark Ideson of London, Ont., placed their rocks according to plan.

In his last two shots of the game, Ideson set up a guard on his first then knocked the Korean stone out of the house to have Canada lying three. The Korean skip faced two difficult shots and was not precise enough.

‘’On the last shot I was thinking I didn’t want to leave it for the Korean skip,’’ said Ideson, at his fourth Games, and third as skip. ‘’Because he could have potentially taken out one or two of our stones on the button. I figured we might as well take a crack at setting ourselves for the win.’’

Canada’s best game this week was its victory over China, the reigning Paralympic and world champions. The Canadians scored four in the seventh to lead 9-4 and the Chinese conceded the match.

‘’We’re going to be ready for China, we love playing against them,’’ said Ideson. ‘’They are very skilled so how can you not be up for a game against them. We’ll get some good rest tonight and be ready tomorrow.’’

The gold medal game goes at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday.