OGDEN, Utah — Canada will be heading into the playoffs on a roll after another two win day at the World Men’s Curling Championship on Thursday.
Matt Dunstone, third Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden and alternate Geoff Walker capped their round robin with a 10-2 record after defeating Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz 9-2 in the afternoon draw and Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell 7-5 in an extra end in the evening draw.
As a result, Canada finishes third overall in the preliminary round and will face Italy’s Stefano Spiller in the qualification round on Friday morning.
Both teams made changes to their line-up for the round robin finale, with Canada having Geoff Walker come in at lead for Ryan Harnden and Magnus Ramsfjell stepping at skip for Norway in place of Andreas Haarstad.
The first two ends were largely uneventful, with Dunstone keeping things clean and Ramsfjell making an open hit and roll out for the blank in both frames.
Canada had a couple of rocks at the back of the house at Ramsfjell’s last shot in the third end, and he’d draw to the eight foot for the first point of the game.
An attempted big weight double by Ramsfjell on his last shot of the fourth would only get one, and Dunstone would have a wide open draw for a pair and a 2-1 lead heading into the fifth end.
Canada again had a handful of rocks at the back of the house at Norway’s final shot of that frame, with Ramsfjell drawing down to backing for a single point and the tie.
Norway just missed a long angle double with their final shot of the sixth, leaving Dunstone with an open draw for a pair that he’d put back four foot for a 4-2 lead.
Dunstone made a nice double with his first rock of the seventh end to get out of trouble, and would draw behind cover into the eight foot with his final shot. Ramsfjell attempted a touch takeout but wrecked on the guard, making it a 5-3 game with three ends to play.
Dunstone’s touch was on display again on his two shots in the eighth, with a light takeout on his final shot leaving Canada laying a pair in the four foot behind cover. Ramsfjell made an amazing runback double with his last rock, though, clearing the house and retaining the hammer in the ninth end.
There, Norway ended up with a draw to the four foot for a pair with their last rock and they’d make it perfectly, making it a 5-4 game coming home.
A nice double on Ramsfjell’s final shot of the eighth left Norway laying a pair in the four foot, and Dunstone would attempt the double for the win. He’d only get the top stone, the steal would go on the board and the teams were off to an extra end.
There, Dunstone would have an open runback takeout with his final shot, and he’d make no mistake for the deuce and 7-5 win.
Earlier Thursday, Canada had no trouble defeating Germany’s Muskatewicz, scoring three in the third and stealing another three in the fifth on their way to a 9-2 win in six ends.
Results from the morning draw saw Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi take a 10-2 win over Poland’s Konrad Stych, the United States’ John Shuster score one in the 10th for a 9-8 win over Italy’s Stefano Spiller, Scotland’s Ross Whyte pick up three over the final two ends for a 7-4 win over Switzerland’s Marco Hoesli and China’s Xaioming Xu get past Germany9-5.
Other scores from the afternoon games saw Italy defeat Norway 7-4, Sweden’s Niklas Edin put up seven in the fifth end on his way to an 11-2 win over Czechia’s Lukas Klima and Japan roll to a 9-3 win over Korea’s Changmin Kim.
Other scores from the evening draw saw Scotland need only six ends to defeat Czechia 8-2, China score two in the 10th for a 6-5 win over Poland and Switzerland score four in the ninth for a 9-5 win over the United States.
Final round robin standings are as follows:
Sweden (Edin) 10-2 Q
Scotland (Whyte) 10-2 Q
Canada (Dunstone) 10-2 Q
Switzerland (Hoesli) 9-3 Q
United States (Shuster) 8-4 Q
Italy (Spiller) 8-4 Q
China (Xu) 6-6
Japan (Yamaguchi) 5-7
Germany (Muskatewitz) 4-8
Korea (Kim) 3-9
Czechia (Klima) 3-9
Poland (Stych) 2-10
Norway (Haarstad) 0-12
Canada takes on Italy and Switzerland faces the United States in the qualification round, with those games at 9 a.m. Friday. The winner of Canada and Italy will play Scotland in one semifinal, the winner of Switzerland and the U.S. faces Sweden in the other. Both semifinals are 3 p.m. Friday.
The semifinal losers will play for bronze at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the gold medal game at 2 p.m.
