Canada remains unbeaten at world men's curling championship

Even a guy as even-keeled as Kevin Koe had to have a lump in his throat when he delivered his final stone of the ninth end against Italy.

Looking to make a double of two stones in the four-foot, Koe’s second delivery grazed by a guard with less than an inch of air and reached its target to sit three. When Italian skip Joel Retornaz was a couple of inches wide with his draw, Koe stole three and moved to 3-0 after Sunday’s afternoon draw at the world men’s curling championship in Lethbridge, Alta.

In the evening, Koe remained unbeaten with a 8-6 win over China.

With his first stone, Koe made a soft double tap to sit two in the four-foot behind cover, forcing Retornaz to make a draw to the button though beside another of his stones, setting up the double.

“Kevin has made a living on making the big shots,” lead Ben Hebert said. “Those were two great shots, a game winner for sure.”

Koe got the usual strong effort from both Hebert and second Colton Flasch but was really helped by a 96% effort from third B. J. Neufeld.

“That’s what B.J. does. He’s a model of consistency,” Hebert said. “He makes us all look good and makes our job easier.”

Italy had control for much of the early part of the game, taking a 3-1 lead after three when Retornaz made a perfect freeze in the four-foot. He also bailed his team out of early trouble with a great draw in the first and another in the fourth. Retornaz got a strong game from lead Simone Gonin but it was a tough outing for third Amos Mosaner and second Sebastiano Arman.

Against Qiang Zou of China, Canada broke the game open in the fourth end when a pick and a missed double attempt by third Zhiyu Wang and a couple of missed shots by Zou led to a score of four for Canada. Then in the sixth, a missed takeout by Zou led to two more. In the 10th, an early hog line violation by China cost them any chance of erasing the deficit.

NO PRESSURE: Niklas Edin may be seeking a record-tying fourth world championship, but it’s certainly not getting to him. The Swedish skip and his team third Oskar Eriksson, second Rasmus Wrana, lead Christoffer Sundgren understand how to block that off and get to the business of the week.

“We don’t think about the fact that we’re defending the title,” he said. “We might think about it and get questions about it beforehand, but when we’re playing, it’s just like any other championship, we’re trying to reach the final and play well.”

Edin played a light tap back for four to build an 8-1 lead en route to a 9-4 win over the Netherlands to take Sweden to 2-0. Then in the evening, Edin scored five in the first end and four more in the fifth against Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway, rolling to an easy 11-5 win.

STRONG START: The surprise team after Sunday’s play is Japan, who sits at 3-0. Skip Yuta Matsumura, making his first playing appearance at the championships, scored four in the third end then withstood a late charge from China to take a 9-6 win. Then against Norway, Matsumura and his team of third Tetsuro Shimizu, second Yasumasa Tanida, and lead Shinya Abe took control early with five in the second end and went on to another 9-6 score.

CRUZ CONTROL: Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz stood at 2-0 after morning play following an important 5-4 win over Scotland. De Cruz, fourth-stone thrower Benoit Schwarz, third Sven Michel, and lead Valentin Tanner scored one in the 10th to edge Bruce Mowat’s crew.

“We know that this team is probably one of the favourites for this tournament, we know they can play really, really well,” de Cruz said. “I think maybe they didn’t have their best game and we had a decent game, so I think we deserved to win today.”

De Cruz scored three in the fourth against Sergey Glukhov of Russia and controlled the game the rest of the way for a 9-7 win.

BOUNCING BACK: After getting upset by the Netherlands on Saturday, the U.S. won both its games on Sunday, a 6-3 win over SooHyuk Kim of Korea in the afternoon and a 8-6 win over Marc Muskatewitz of Germany in the evening.

John Shuster and his Duluth, Minn., foursome of third Chris Plys, second Matt Hamilton and lead John Landsteiner stole one in the seventh and another in the eighth to beat Korea.

Then, Shuster stole three in the fourth against Germany and held the lead to the finish.