A steal of two in the 10th by Great Britain means the U.S. women's curling team will have to wait a little longer to try to clinch a spot in the Olympic semifinals.
Up by two in the final end, the U.S. sat a rock directly on the button, and Great Britain's Rebecca Morrison had just one opportunity to move it. The first-time Olympian sent her final stone directly down the ice into a U.S. corner guard way off to the side of the house. It was played to pin-point perfection, hitting the guard and spinning off, taking out the inside U.S. stone and sitting in its place.
"It was maybe a tactical error, and then a miss, really, and they made a great shot," U.S. skip Tabitha Peterson said of the set-up to the winning shot. "I'd say maybe you make that less than 50 percent of the time. It's a tough shot. So yeah, I mean, kudos to them."
Peterson's hammer throw attempt was nowhere close, running into a guard high on the ice, allowing Great Britain to steal two for an 8-7 victory.
"That one hurt a little more," she added about the loss. "I think maybe I just attacked wrong on my second-to-last shot, and then I just didn't make my last one either. That's unfortunate, but they made a fantastic shot, so not much you could do about that."
Not only was it an unbelievable finish, the final score had huge implications for the rest of the tournament. With a win, the U.S. would have clinched a spot in the tournament semifinals for the first time since 2002.
A loss would have eliminated Great Britain, the defending Olympic gold medalists.
Instead, the Americans (4-3) are in a must-win situation for their final round-robin game, and Great Britain's (3-4) medal hopes stay alive.
Peterson's team trailed, 4-3, after six ends before breaking the game open in the seventh. Morrison went for a double-takeout on her final throw of the end but missed, setting up a big opportunity for Team USA. They took it as Peterson drew to the button for three and their first lead since the first end.
A steal of one more in the eighth looked to just about put the game away before Team GB battled back. Morrison's team scored two in the ninth.
Despite the loss, Peterson insisted her team won't be thinking about this one very long.
"No. We'll talk about it in our debrief and then we have to move on," she said.
The U.S. outshot Great Britain, 84-72 percent, on all shots, including 79-66 percent on takeouts and 88-76 percent on draw shots.
"We'll take away the positives. There are plenty of positives. We did a lot right that game, so we'll kind of just focus on that and regroup for a big game tomorrow."
The U.S. will take the afternoon session off and finish round-robin play on Thursday morning against Switzerland (5-2), they team they were tied with for 2nd place coming into Wednesday. Thursday's match will begin at 8:05 a.m. ET.
They still control their own destiny and can clinch the semifinals with a victory on Thursday. If they lose, they'll need help from Great Britain, who would have to lose one of their final two games.
If the U.S. loses and Great Britain wins both of their final two games, multiple teams could finish tied for third at 5-4, setting up a tiebreak which would go to the team with the highest winning percentage in games played against other tied teams.
"One rock at a time, one end at a time, and we'll see what happens," Peterson said.
"We played a great game, so we kind of just have to learn from it but also just regroup and forget it and move on because we do have one more big game tomorrow. ... We're still feeling confident. We'll take a little bit to kind of get over it, but we have to get over it and come out strong tomorrow."
Great Britain will play Japan later on Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. ET, and will finish round-robin play against Italy on Thursday at 8:05 a.m. ET.
| United States (7) | Great Britain (8) | |
| 1 | 1st end | 0 |
| 0 | 2nd end | 1 |
| 0 | 3rd end | 1 |
| 1 | 4th end | 0 |
| 1 | 5th end | 0 |
| 0 | 6th end | 2 |
| 3 | 7th end | 0 |
| 1 | 8th end | 0 |
| 0 | 9th end | 2 |
| 0 | 10th end | 2 |