Canada up against 'stacked field' in quest for playoffs at mixed doubles curling worlds

At the end of three days of mixed doubles curling inside Fredericton's Willie O'Ree Place, one team stood alone above the rest.

Only the reigning Olympic champions in mixed doubles, Italy's Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, had yet to lose a game.

That came after storming back to defeat the Canadian team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant 7-5 on Monday evening, a comeback that Italy secured by tying the game in the seventh end and pulling ahead by two in the final end. It was the Canadians' second game of the day, after defeating the Netherlands 7-3 on Monday morning.

You could hear a pin drop inside the arena as the last red Canadian rock slid down the ice, followed by applause for the home team.

"We battled right to the end," Gallant told CBC Sports. "She made a beautiful runback on her last shot and left us with a really tricky draw. But we knew it was going to be a battle tonight and we've just got to dust that one off and come back tomorrow."

Canada ended Monday tied with Scotland and Sweden, all teams with a 4-1 record, behind Italy in Group A. In the second group, all of Australia, Estonia, Japan, Norway and the United States registered one loss atop the pool.

Only the top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. That so many teams are in the running is a sign of the depth of the field, something that's only grown since mixed doubles was added as an Olympic discipline in 2018.

"It's a stacked field," said Sweden's Anna Hasselborg. "Four of our teams [in Group A] could easily be medalling at the Olympics. It's going to be a really tough week because there's a lot of top teams."

The stakes are high. Olympic qualification points will be awarded based on how teams finish. The points earned