MONCTON, N.B. April 9, 2009 (CCA)— Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud has assured himself of at least a tiebreaker berth at the 2009 Ford world men’s curling championship at the Moncton Coliseum.
Ulsrud’s Oslo team — third Torger Nergård, second Christoffer Svae, lead Håvard Vad Petersson, alternate Thomas Løvold and coach Ole Ingvaldsen — came back for an 11-7 win over Japan’s Yusuke Morozumi in Draw 15 play Thursday morning.
Japan raced to a 5-1 lead through four ends, taking four in the third end and stealing one in the fourth. But Norway fought back with deuces in the fifth and seventh ends, and finished off with steals of three, one and two.
“I think it was the craziest curling game I’ve played this year,” said Ulsrud. “We were down five or six or something, we had nothing going, I had no feel for the rocks, and I just said to my third that I wanted to change my rocks. And suddenly things started to happen and the other guy started to miss. He made everything before the (fifth-end) break, and we probably made everything after it.”
With the win, Norway improved to 7-3 in the 12-team round-robin, and can finish no worse than a tie for fourth place. Japan took its seventh loss in 10 games.
Canada’s Kevin Martin, meanwhile, racked up his 10th straight win in his bid to collect back-to-back world titles, and become the first Canadian team ever to run the table at provincial, national and world competitions in the same year.
Canada, which already has clinched first place in the round-robin standings and a berth in the Page one vs. two game, opened with four in the first end and added a steal of one in the second and cruised in with a 10-4 win over Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt. The Danes dropped to 5-5 with the loss, still barely alive for a playoff spot.
China’s Bingyu Wang scored four in the seventh end in a 9-7 win over Finland’s Kalle Kiiskinen. The win improved China’s record to 4-6, which should be good enough to assure the country a berth in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Finland remained in the cellar at 1-9.
Also, Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic stole points in the fifth and ninth ends and shut down France’s Thomas Dufour 6-2. The Czechs improved to 3-7 while France dipped to 4-6 to fall out of playoff contention.
David Murdoch of Scotland (6-3), John Shuster of the U.S. (5-4), Andy Kapp of Germany (5-4) and Ralph Stoeckli of Switzerland (5-4) all had byes in Draw 15.
The round-robin schedule wraps up Thursday with draws at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with TSN showing the Canadian game at 7:30 p.m. against Scotland. Curltv.com also will be broadcasting.
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.