NISKU, Alta. — Selena Njegovan skipped Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes into the win column during Draw 5 Wednesday in the Co-op Canadian Open at the Silent Ice Center.
Team Lawes defeated Japan’s Team Ikue Kitazawa 6-4 to improve to a 1-1 record in round-robin play.
Njegovan, who normally plays third, is skipping the team with Lawes on maternity leave. Jocelyn Peterman has moved up to third with alternate Becca Hebert subbing in at second.
Lawes gave birth to her second daughter, Ella, this past Friday.
“We’re super excited for her,” Njegovan said. “I skipped the last time she was pregnant, so it’s not the newest thing for me but it is a lot different playing skip over third. It’s been good. It’s really good for me even as an overall player and as a third to see it from a different end.”
Njegovan held the hammer coming home leading by one. She had to make a double takeout with the last shot of the game to secure the victory while also tacking on another point.
“It was fun,” Njegovan said. “I thought that we had that shot and knew what the ice was going to do. Just came out there and threw it.”
“The girls played really well,” she added. “We had a great team game and are just learning every game out there.”
Elsewhere in the morning draw, Team Xenia Schwaller scored two in the eighth end to edge Team Silvana Tirinzoni 6-5 in an all-Switzerland showdown, Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini defeated Team Seung-youn Ha of South Korea 7-3 and Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa beat South Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim 8-2.
Constantini and Fujisawa climbed to 2-0 records. Schwaller, Tirinzoni and Ha are all level at 1-1. Gim fell to 0-2.
UP NEXT
Three more draws are on tap Wednesday.
Coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / noon MT.
NOTES
The Co-op Canadian Open is the second Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. The top eight teams advance to the playoffs. If necessary, one tiebreaker draw will be played Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals set for Sunday.
