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CAMROSE, Alta. — It was a good morning for Chelsea Carey.

Carey rushed out to a 9-1 victory in just five ends over EunJung Kim during the third draw of the Meridian Canadian Open to start Wednesday’s action.

Carey (1-1) bounced back big time after falling to Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson 6-4 in Tuesday’s opener.

“We were definitely a bit better,” Carey said. “We had a better feel for draw weight, put some rocks in some good spots and obviously, we’re lucky to get some misses out of them. It shouldn’t have been that big of a runaway. They certainly helped us. We put some rocks in some better spots so we felt good about that.”

Kim opened with the hammer but was forced to a single in the first. That was the only offence out of Kim as it was all Carey from there. The 2016 Canadian champion scored a deuce in the second and rode the steal train pirating a pair of points in the third, two more in the fourth and three in the fifth to bring out early handshakes.

Sixteen of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s team from around the world are competing in the Meridian Canadian Open. The fourth tournament of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season features a triple knockout preliminary format where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the weekend playoffs. Eight teams in both men’s and women’s divisions advance.

Carey (1-1) stays in the B brackets while Kim, who will represent South Korea on home ice at the upcoming Winter Games, has dropped to the C side at 0-2 and on the verge of elimination already.

“I think any path that gets you to the qualifier, it doesn’t matter,” Carey said. “We’re just going to grind away and hope we can get into the playoffs.”

Team Carey has been on a whirlwind road to start the year. Carey and Colin Hodgson just missed the Page playoffs at the Canadian mixed doubles trials a couple weeks ago while Team Carey second Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant fell in the semifinal. The Calgary-based crew also lost in the Alberta semifinal Sunday but have a second chance to qualify for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts through the wild-card game Jan. 26 against Team Einarson.

Carey is using the Meridian Canadian Open as a warm-up for that even if the rules are slightly different.

“Eight ends is lovely. It’s just flying by so we’re enjoying that,” Carey said with a laugh. “We love five-rock rule, so that’s been a lot of fun. It’s good.

“We’re disappointed about the Alberta Scotties but we’re looking forward to the wild-card game, so we want to use this event to ramp up for that. The ice here is more of like what we’ll see at the wild-card game, our provincial ice is a bit different, so we’re using that experience to hopefully set us up for success at Scotties.”

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Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., scored three in the fifth followed by back-to-back single steals to defeat Team Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., 7-3 in the A brackets first round. Two-time Canadian champion Heather Nedohin was filling in for skip Casey Scheidegger, who missed the match due to work commitments.

American Nina Roth also used steals to shut out Alina Paetz of Switzerland 8-0 in their first-round A game. Roth, who will skip the U.S. at the Olympics, never held the hammer swiping singles in one and two, three points in the third, another in the fourth and two more in fifth.

Jason Gunnlaugson downed former teammate Reid Carruthers 9-3 in an all-Winnipeg team A side battle in the men’s division. Gunnlaugson opens at 1-0 while Carruthers (0-1) is now in the B brackets.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud beat Chang-Min Kim of South Korea 5-2 in a B matchup of Olympic proportions. Ulsrud (1-1) remains in B side while Kim (0-2) falls to C.

The action continues with Draw 4 at Noon MT.

NOTES: Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 24-29 at Calgary’s WinSport Arena. … Points are also up for grabs for the Bonus Cup, awarded to the overall season champions. … Television coverage begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET on Sportsnet. Also watch online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international).