Canada remains perfect to claim curling gold

Sochi, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) - Canada completed a perfect run to gold in women's curling at the Sochi Olympics, beating Sweden 6-3 on Thursday to end the tournament with an 11-0 record.

The Canadians, led by skip Jennifer Jones, became the first team to post a perfect record en route to a gold medal in women's curling and earned their country's first gold medal in the event since the 1998 Nagano Games.

The only previous team to go through an Olympic tournament with an unblemished record was the Canadian men's rink skipped by Kevin Martin in the Vancouver Games in 2010. Canada's men will have a chance at a third straight Olympic gold when it faces Great Britain on Friday.

Thursday's win earned the Canadian women a bit of redemption after losing to Sweden for the gold medal at the Vancouver Games. The Swedes headed into Sochi as two-time reigning Olympic champions, but had to settle for silver this time around.

Sweden has earned a medal at four of the five Winter Games where women's curling has been a medal sport. The only time the Swedes failed to reach the podium was at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Canada opened the scoring with a point in the opening end, but Sweden tied it with a single in the second. The Canadians used the hammer to score two points in the fourth, but once again Sweden was able to even the contest in the following end.

The score remained tied at 3-3 until the eighth end, when a measurement was needed to award Canada a point and the 4-3 lead.

The Swedes held the last shot of the ninth end, but couldn't use it to their advantage. With Canada in position to score one, Swedish vice-skip Maria Prytz actually knocked one of her own team's stones further away from the button and allowed the Canadians to steal two points. The miscue put Canada ahead 6-3 heading into the 10th and final end.

Earlier on Thursday, Great Britain edged Switzerland 6-5 for the bronze medal.