Canada still perfect, 7 teams in playoff hunt

REGINA, Canada -- The hosts continued to march toward the weekend medal games and an unbeaten round-robin record on Wednesday afternoon at the World Men's Curling Championships in Regina, Canada, with their ninth straight victory, a 10-6 win over Sweden, one of the teams fighting to join them in the Play-off stages.

The Canadian win was largely set up by a score of four in the second end, which they added to with three points in the fourth.

After this game, Canadian skip Jeff Stoughton said, "It's been a great week so far and we've got lots of work left still to do. We're not going to let the train stop and we're going to keep on rolling. We've got two great games tomorrow, and while it may look convincing for us out there, you're just grinding away."

Meanwhile Swedish skip Niklas Edin said, "We wanted a tight game, win or lose. We just wanted to have a good game and that was not a good game." Looking forward, he added, "All the games are important now. Bouncing back is not going to be a problem. I think we've got a good chance in the rest of the games."

At the same time, second-placed Scotland were comfortably in control of their game against Denmark as they ran out 7-3 winners, while France's charge to the medal stages was halted -- at least temporarily -- by Germany, who won a tight game by 6-5, to keep their own medal hopes alive.

After the game against Denmark, Scottish skip Tom Brewster said, "It's nice to win after last night (loss to Canada) and keep a pretty good record at the top. That's a big win."

However, in their evening session later, the Scots went down by 5-7 to a Norwegian team fighting for Play-off survival. Crucially in this game, Scotland gave up a three in the fifth end and a steal of one in the sixth when, not for the first time in the week, Brewster's final draw was short.

After this game, Brewster said, "That doesn't hurt us from a standing point of view, but it would have been nicer to have a win, and it would have been good to put them (Norway) out, they're a good team."

In the fourth game of the afternoon session, China beat South Korea in the all-Asia face-off, winning by 9-6, a win which was secured through a score of four for China in the fourth end.

Five teams still in contention to join Canada in the play-off stages -- including Norway and Scotland -- were in action in the evening session.

Germany's Andy Kapp kept his Play-off ambition alive through a 7-4 win over Switzerland, after which he said, "We're staying alive against really good Swiss guys. We lost twice against them at the Europeans and we said it's now our time."

Germany concludes the round-robin programme on Thursday against two teams now out of contention -- Denmark and the Czech Republic -- but Kapp is wary of the task ahead. "None of these games is easy. We don't know if Denmark are playing just for fun, and sometimes this is more difficult than in other games. This Czech team is really playing well, so there are no easy games tomorrow. But we are in a good position now, if we keep playing like we did today, I hope we can make it."

Meanwhile, back on after his earlier loss to Canada, and after a crucial pick-up on a last shot in the tenth end that would have given him victory, Sweden's Niklas Edin had a final promote shot in an extra end that went wrong, as he lost by 5-6 to the Czechs. Afterwards, a still shell-shocked Edin said, "We should not have been in the extra end, the pick in the tenth was so unfortunate. We're going to play the same tomorrow, hopefully we'll win, and hopefully no picks."

These results leave France, who sat the evening session out, in a clear third place with six wins.
With each team having two more games to play in Thursday's final round-robin day, second-placed Scotland, on seven wins, are in the strongest position behind Canada and ahead of third-placed France; while Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, all on five wins, are still battling away to reach the weekend's medal games.

In the fourth game of the evening session, China beat USA by 5-4, although neither can now make the medal stages.

Morning session
With the business end of the event fast approaching, Canada took one step closer to the top qualifying spot for the weekend medal games, scoring a 9-4 win over the Czech Republic in Wednesday morning's 12th session of round-robin play. Canada's eighth straight win featured a big score of four in the third end.

Afterwards, Canadian skip Jeff Stoughton said, "That was a pretty good game. I missed a couple of shots that I would like back but other than that, we got the win, that's all that matters... It would be really comfortable to get to nine wins and that's our goal now".

Meanwhile, as they continued to put together their best campaign of recent years, France did their qualification chances no harm at all, when they beat fellow play-off contenders Switzerland by 8-7, thanks largely to a score of four in the sixth end.

French skip Thomas Dufour admitted that they had now exceeded their pre-event hopes. "That was very important. That was the game that may bring us more than we expected at the beginning of the worlds, maybe the tie-breakers or the play-offs. We thought we would be in the middle of the pack and, with three games to play, we are still in the middle of the pack -- to my mind. We will see what happens".

Despite this loss, Switzerland remain in strong Play-off contention. After his loss, Swiss skip Christof Schwaller conceded, "Tough game, one bad end -- sixth end, we were too heavy with our rocks. But, we're still alive. We know we have to win two or maybe three games to get into the Play-offs -- that's the goal. Our target was to make the play-offs. We know that's a high target and we're working on it -- we're still there".

Norway had a six-end 9-2 cruise over winless Denmark to give them their fourth win so far and keep their slim Play-off chances alive, but USA's 8-4 victory over South Korea was only their third win of the week, and, welcome as it was for a USA team that has struggled, it was too little too late in terms of keeping American medal hopes alive.

After his must-win game against Denmark, Norway skip Thomas Ulsrud said, "We got off to a good start. Actually, we haven't been able to show it this far in the tournament, but we're actually a good hitting team".

He added, "It's a long road and it's tough, but I think we're still in it, so we just have to keep on fighting. It's like playing a single match tournament".

Standings after 14 sessions:
Canada 9-0
Scotland 7-2
France 6-3
Germany 5-4
Switzerland 5-4
Sweden 5-4
Norway 5-4
China 4-5
United States 3-6
Czech Republic 3-6
Korea 2-7
Denmark 0-9

RESULTS:
Session 12: Denmark 2, Norway 9; USA 8, Korea 4; Czech Republic 4, Canada 9; Switzerland 7, France 8.

Session 13: Canada 10, Sweden 6; Germany 6, France 5; Denmark 3, Scotland 7; Korea 6, China 9.

Session 14: USA 4, China 5; Norway 7, Scotland 5; Germany 7, Switzerland 4; Czech Republic 6, Sweden 5.

Content courtesy of World Curling Federation