Photo: Canada Curling

Team Canada

It didn’t come easily, but Canada has reached the final eight at the 2018 Winn Rentals World Mixed Curling Championship.

The Canadian team from the Thornhill, Ontario with skip Mike Anderson, vice-skip Danielle Inglis, second Sean Harrison, lead Lauren Harrison and coach Jim Waite — was pushed hard by a Slovenian team it had beaten 9-2 on the opening Saturday of the event.

But Canada managed to break the game open with a crucial steal of three in the fourth end and sailed home with a 9-5 win over Slovenia’s Tomas Tisler.

The win advanced Canada to an 8 p.m quarter-final showdown  Friday with Scotland’s Robin Brydone, the lone unbeaten team (8-0) after round-robin play.

“They played really well, but we knew going in that they’re a dangerous team to play right now,” vice-skip Inglis said. 

“They had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose. We knew it would be a closer game than our first one with them, that’s for sure.”

The gold- and bronze-medal games are at 3 p.m. PT on Saturday.