Canada’s chance of going undefeated in mixed doubles curling has come to an end at Milano Cortina 2026.
The husband-and-wife duo of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant dropped their first match of the competition against Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin of the U.S. 7-5 in their lone action on Friday at the Olympics.
The seventh end was the difference in the match as Peterman was heavy on a freeze attempt and left an open hit for Thiesse to score three, giving the U.S. a 7-4 lead.
Despite the loss, Canada is still 3-1 in the event so far, sitting in third place with four of its next five games against teams with worse records.
Meanwhile, after beating Canada, the U.S. went on to crush Czechia 8-1 and is now 4-0 to start the week.
The Americans fed off the strong U.S. crowd against Canada, with a certain celebrity leading the way.
Snoop Dogg — a notoriously huge fan of the Olympics — was in attendance for the big win, but it wasn’t a shock to Thiesse and Dropkin.
“The (coaches) wanted to make sure we knew so we could be prepared and not have it be a surprise,” Dropkin said in a post-game interview with The Athletic’s Zack Pierce.
Beforehand, the U.S. curling team gave Snoop his own jacket that read “Coach Snoop” on the back, something Thiesse noticed during the match.
“Just so cool to be able to meet him and to have him there, supporting us,” Thiesse told Pierce.
Here’s how the rest of the results looked from Friday’s action:
Friday, Feb. 6 results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 5
Great Britain 7, Sweden 4
Italy 12, Switzerland 4
U.S. 7, Canada 5
Draw 6
U.S. 8, Czechia 1
Italy 7, Estonia 4
Great Britain 8, Korea 2
Norway 9, Sweden 0
What went wrong for Canada
Peterman and Gallant will probably focus on the seventh end being the reason they lost this game, and rightly so, as if Peterman made the freeze perfect, the U.S. would’ve only been able to score at best two, but probably only one.
However, it was really something that was building up over the entire match that led to that moment where Peterman was just a tad heavy.
In the fourth end, the Americans were heavy with their freeze attempt, opening the door for Peterman to play a double takeout for two. She came through.
The game was tied 3-3, but as the two teams went to discuss with their coaches about the first half, they realized something massive.
Canada had just 7:44 of thinking time left, while the United States had 8:26. Both teams start the match with 22 minutes.
So, they both knew the second half of the game was going to be rushed and there really wasn’t much time to think about their shots.
Which led to Peterman’s attempt in the seventh.
Now with just over two minutes left and another end to play, Peterman had to rush her shot to try to save time.
If the clock wasn’t so tight, Peterman would’ve been able to take a couple more seconds at least to breathe and get set before throwing.
In the final end, with all the momentum on the Americans' side and barely any time left, Gallant and Peterman couldn’t produce a three-ender to tie and lost.
The Cory’s (Korey) are a problem
After beating both Switzerland and Norway on Thursday, the U.S. team of Thiesse and Dropkin looked like it could make some noise at this event. But the real test was on Friday when the duo faced Canada, who previously defeated Italy — the defending gold medallists — quite handedly.
In Canada’s previous games, it was aggressive, which hurt opponents, leading to bad throws. But the U.S. wasn't fazed even when it gave up a steal in the first end.
Thiesse and Dropkin managed Canada’s style of play well, using it against them — especially in the second and seventh ends when they scored five of their seven points.
You have to give the pair credit — they shot a combined 83 per cent, edging out Peterman and Gallant, who shot 82 per cent.
Not only are they a problem for the rest of the field with their on-ice performance, but the boost they get from the crowd is a major issue for other countries as well.
Multiple times in the match against Canada you could hear “USA” chants picked up by the broadcast mics. Dropkin even played off the crowd during the match, giving him more confidence as the game went on.
If the Cory’s (Korey) continue shooting like they are, and the crowd is cheering like that, they will not just make the playoffs, but they could wind up with a medal.
Great Britain crushes easiest part of schedule
The team standing atop the leaderboard after Friday is Great Britain's Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat at 5-0.
However, it’s safe to say the first half of their schedule was the easiest of any team. They will now face some serious medal contenders in at least three of their four remaining matches.
Dodds and Mouat’s play hasn’t been the best in their first five matches, either. Combined, they've shot between 75 and 77 per cent in each one.
Those numbers aren’t going to beat teams like Italy, Canada and the U.S., so the cushion they’ve created is important.
Day 4 of the mixed doubles curling competition gets underway at 4:05 a.m. ET / 1:05 a.m. PT. as Peterman and Gallant take on Great Britain. They return to the ice to face Estonia at 1:05 p.m. ET / 10:05 a.m. PT.
The top four teams after nine round-robin games advance to the playoffs, which begin Monday.
