MONCTON, N.B. April 8, 2009 (CCA)— Canada’s headed to the Page playoff one vs. two game while Scotland is back to its winning ways at the 2009 Ford world men’s curling championship.
While Canada’s Kevin Martin was grinding out a 9-6 win over John Shuster of the United States on Wednesday at the Moncton Coliseum, Scotland’s David Murdoch was able to snap a two-game losing streak with a 9-1 thrashing of France’s Thomas Dufour in Draw 13 play.
With the win, the Scots — Murdoch is backed up by third Ewan MacDonald, second Peter Smith, lead Euan Byers, alternate Graeme Connal and coach David Hay — improved to 5-3.
“A lot of folks maybe expected us to crumble after (two losses) yesterday, but this team has a lot of self-belief,” said Murdoch, the 2009 silver-medallist to the Martin foursome. “What are you going to do? Are you going to moan about it and come out and still be down in the dumps? You have to come out and fight hard, and that’s what we showed today. We’re here to fight for the rest of the week, and if it means going to hard way, we’ll have to go the hard way.”
Scotland opened with a first-end deuce, added four in the fourth end and put away the win with a steal of three in the seventh in dropping France’s record to 4-5.
Canada, meanwhile, put on a show in front of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in attendance for the afternoon draw. After surrendering a first-end deuce, the Canadians tied it with two in the second, then took control for good with four in the fourth end.
Canada improved to 9-0 and clinched a berth in the Page playoff one vs. two game, while the U.S. dipped to 4-4.
In other afternoon action, Germany’s Andy Kapp made a draw to bite a piece of the button to beat China’s Fengchun Wang 8-6. The Germans scored a crucial three in the eighth end after China’s last-rock thrower Rui Liu had a bad jam on his final delivery. Germany improved to 5-3 while China dropped to 3-6.
Also, Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli improved his playoff hopes with a 7-4 victory over Japan’s Yusuke Morozumi. The Swiss evened their record at 4-4, while Japan dropped to 3-6.
Thomas Ulsrud of Norway (6-2), Ulrik Schmidt of Denmark (4-4), Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic (2-6) and Kalle Kiiskinen of Finland (1-7) had byes in Draw 13.
Wednesday action at the Ford worlds concludes with the 7:30 p.m. draw (all times Atlantic) on curltv.com.
On Thursday, the round-robin schedule wraps up with draws at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with TSN showing the Canadian games, at 10 a.m. against Denmark and 7:30 p.m. against Scotland.
The top four teams following the conclusion of round-robin play on Thursday night will make the Page playoffs. The first- and second-place teams will play Friday at 7:30 p.m. or Saturday at 10 a.m., depending on potential tiebreakers, with the winner going into Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game on TSN.
The third- and fourth-place teams will play Friday or Saturday for a berth in Saturday’s 4 p.m. semifinal on TSN against the loser of the Page one-two game.