Jennifer Jones’ world domination continues, goes for gold on Thursday at Sochi Olympics

A fast start, a mushy middle and then a fabulous finish. With a stone cold draw to the button by the skipper to cap it.

That about sums up the Canada's 6 - 4 semi-final win over Great Britain in women's curling at the Sochi Olympics.

Up by a point in the tenth end and facing three Great Britain counters, Jennifer Jones set the broom, took some extra time in the hack, and then delivered a perfect throw to ice it.

Now her team with a record of 10 and oh, has a chance to make it a perfect run to a gold medal when they meet Sweden in the final tomorrow. If they do it, they'll be the first Canadian women's team to win Olympic curling gold since Sandra Schmirler's team did it in 1998.

The Swedes are two-time defending Olympic champions, although those winning teams were skipped by Anette Norberg, while the current crew is helmed by Margaretha Sigfridsson. Sweden defeated Switzerland in the other semi, 7 - 5.

Only one other team in Olympic history has left the games with a perfect 11 and oh mark. That was Kevin Martin's gold medal team at Vancouver, four years ago.

While this game was bogged down with fairly routine play peppered with head-scratching misses most of the way, a couple of key Canadian performers rebounded in time to finish strongly and power themselves to at least a silver medal.

Kaitlyn Lawes, Canada's vice, bounced back as the game wore on. After a slow start for the usually reliable third, she found the range in time to help bail out of a couple of dicey situations late in the game. In the eighth end, she fired a double that defused an offensive surge by Great Britain. In the ninth, she narrowly missed a double peel and then followed that up with another double takeout that led to Great Britain skip Eve Muirhead having to settle for one.

That was a key force, with Canada heading to the tenth end with hammer and up, 5 - 4.

While Lawes struggled with her hitting game until late in the match, her counterpart with Great Britain, Anna Sloan, had trouble finding the range with draws. Jones' second, Jill Officer, usually incredibly reliable (she'd curled a perfect game in the Olympic Trials final) flashed a peel attempt and then missed a hit almost completely in the eighth end, when it looked like Great Britain might be able to set up to score three. However, Lawes fired one of her double takeouts and so did her skip, and Great Britain was reduced to producing a blank in order to hold hammer in the ninth.

Officer bounced back strongly as well, with a couple of superb peel shots in the tenth end. Along with a couple of perfect tick shots thrown by lead Dawn McEwen on Great Britain guards, the stage was set for Jones' dramatic draw, one with which she says she was entirely comfortable.

"The inturn draw has been one of my favourite shots all week," Jones said. "So it was kind of fitting that I had that to win the game," she told CBC.

As well as a strong finish, a jackrabbit start helped Jones and her Manitoba teammates in this one. What appeared to be a routine blank end in the first became a score of two when Muirhead's first stone of the end found some debris on the ice and picked, sliding helplessly by a Canadian stone in the rings. Three consecutive superb draws in the second end - one by third Lawes and then two by Jones - led to a steal of one and a 3 - nothing lead for the Canadians.

It certainly wasn't all smooth sailing for Jones. The Scots are reigning world champions and showed their mettle after digging an early hole. After scrapping back with a score of two in the third end, Muirhead forced singles from Canada in both the fourth and sixth ends, while Jones forced her right back in the fifth.

As well, Jones herself seemed a little tense at times, taking unusual amounts of time before her shots, even backing out of the hack on one occasion. If she was feeling nervous or off, it didn't show up much in her performance, as she curled at 89% for the game.

Jones had a stellar record against Muirhead coming into this one. According to statistics at CurlingZone.com, she came into this game with a 10 and 4 won/lost record against the Scottish team in major events, including last week's 9 - 6 victory during the round robin. That didn't inlclude a 12 - 2 romp that Muirhead's team enjoyed over Jones' foursome, at last month's Continental Cup.

The gold medal game, between Canada and Sweden can be seen on CBC at 8:30 am, Eastern time, Thursday. Canada defeated Sweden in a round robin game, last week, 9 - 3.

The bronze medal game, between Great Britain and Switzerland can be seen on TSN at 3:30 am, Eastern time.