MONCTON, N.B. April 9, 2009 (CCA)— Canada will play Scotland in the Page playoff one vs. two game, while there will be a tiebreaker draw to determine the combatants for the Page playoff three vs. four game at the 2009 Ford world men’s curling championship at the Moncton Coliseum.
The Page one-two game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (all times Atlantic) on Friday on TSN, with the winner going to Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game on TSN.
Meanwhile, at 3 p.m. on Friday on curltv.com, John Shuster of the United States will play Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, while Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli will play Andy Kapp of Germany. The two winners will meet in the Page playoff three vs. four game on Saturday at 10 a.m., with the winner there advancing to the semifinal Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Page one-two loser; both Saturday games will be shown by TSN.
Scotland clinched second place with a dramatic 6-5 extra-end triumph over Canada Thursday night, sparked by skip David Murdoch’s terrific double-takeout to score three points in the eighth end.
“We could have easily taken one, but there’s not many teams taking three off Kevin Martin,” said Murdoch, who finished the round-robin with an 8-3 record, while Canada finished up at 10-1 after taking its first loss of the season in provincial, national and world competition. “It was a pretty tricky double, I laid it pretty sweet and we made it. And I got them on the back foot, and that’s really the first time they’ve been on the back foot for a long, long time, including the Brier. That’s good to know.”
The tiebreaker draws were forced by a variety of other results during Draw 17.
On Sheet A, the United States went down by three in the fifth end, but clawed his way back for a 9-6 win over Thomas Dufour of France, who was out of the lineup and replaced at skip by Tony Angiboust.
The U.S. got back to within one with singles in the eighth and ninth ends, then stole four in the 10th when Angiboust was heavy and wide with his last shot. The U.S. finished at 7-4 while France finished up at 4-7.
Meanwhile, Germany got into the tiebreaker mix with a 5-3 win over a stubborn Yusuke Morozumi of Japan. Germany scored two in the second end, a deuce that proved to be the margin of victory as Germany finished the round-robin at 7-4. Japan was 3-8.
And Stoeckli made a last-rock draw to the pin to keep Swiss playoff hopes alive with a 5-4 win over China’s Fengchun Wang. The Swiss got to 7-4 while China finished at 4-7.
Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt (5-6), Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic (3-8) and Kalla Kiiskinen of Finland (1-10) had the final-draw byes.
Meanwhile, the World Curling Fderation announced the final qualifiers for the Olympic men’s competition based on the round-robin results here. Joining host Canada in the 10-team field will be: Germany, the United States, Great Britain, France, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and China.