OGDEN, Utah — Matt Dunstone couldn’t have asked for a better start to his first appearance at the World Men’s Curling Championship.
Dunstone and his Team Canada rink of third Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden opened the tournament in Ogden, Utah with a pair of victories, taking a 5-2 win over Korea’s Changmin Kim in the morning draw before only needing six ends to defeat Italy’s Stefano Spiller in the evening round.
As a result, Canada is tied for first place with Japan at 2-0 with a single game on their schedule for Friday
Dunstone’s showing against Italy basically mirrored his start to the event, with a fast opening setting the tone for the contest.
After Italy blanked the first end, Canada caught a tremendous break in the second, as Ryan Harnden fell and burned Dunstone’s final rock of the frame, giving Italy an angle raise takeout with their final rock for a potential pair. Spiller would come in heavy, though, and the raise would go through the back of the house without touching anything to give Canada a steal of one.
Dunstone drew to the edge of the four foot to sit three with his final shot in the third, leaving Spiller needing to draw full four foot to prevent another steal. He’d come up way light of the rings, giving Canada the steal of three and a 4-0 lead without having had the hammer in the game.
The fourth end set up even better for Dunstone, as he sat four after drawing to the four foot with his final shot. Spiller attempted a draw to the button to finally get on the board but was way light once again, giving up another three, and just like that Canada had a 7-0 edge.
Things finally went Italy’s way in the fifth end, as Spiller had an open hit on a Dunstone rock on the button for two, and he’d hit and stick for the deuce.
A nice raise double on his first shot of the sixth saw Dunstone laying three inside the eight foot at Spiller’s final shot. He’d get the takeout on Canada’s counter in the four foot and roll behind cover, giving Dunstone a raise takeout for three. He’d hit and roll out but still score two, and Italy would shake hands on the 9-2 finish.
Things were far closer against Korea, as the contest was tied 1-1 through four ends before the teams exchanged forces to see things knotted up at two through six. Dunstone picked up a pair in the eighth, though, and then stole another in the ninth before running Korea out of rocks in the final end.
Other results from the first draw saw Sweden’s Niklas Edin take a 6-5 win over Scotland’s Ross Whyte, China’s Xiaoming Xu score a pair in the 10th for an 8-7 win against Czechia’s Lukas Klima and Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi get past Norway’s Andreas Haarstad 6-4.
Other second draw action saw Switzerland’s Marco Hoesli defeat Poland’s Konrad Stych 11-9, Japan score a pair in the 10th to down Scotland 7-5 and Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz roll to a 10-5 win over the United States’ John Shuster.
Standings after the opening day are as follows:
Canada (Dunstone) 2-0
Japan (Yamaguchi) 2-0
China (Xu) 1-0
Germany (Muskatewitz) 1-0
Switzerland (Hoesli) 1-0
Sweden (Edin) 1-0
Czechia (Klima) 0-1
Italy (Spiller) 0-1
Korea (Kim) 0-1
Norway (Haarstad) 0-1
Poland (Stych) 0-1
United States (Shuster) 0-1
Scotland (Whyte) 0-2
Canada plays a single game on Saturday as they face Scotland during the 2 p.m. draw. You can find the contest on TSN and follow along online at livescores.worldcurling.org.
