MONCTON, N.B. April 9, 2009 (CCA)— Scotland’s David Murdoch has reached the gold-medal game at the 2009 Ford world men’s curling championship.

Murdoch’s Lockerbie team — third Ewan MacDonald, second Peter Smith, lead Euan Byers, alternate Graeme Connal and coach David Hay — defeated Canada’s Kevin Martin 7-5 Friday night at the Moncton Coliseum in the Page playoff one vs. two game.

Scotland scored three in the second end and stole one more in the fourth and held off a Canadian comeback in the late stages of the game. Murdoch, whose team finished second to Canada (10-1) in the round-robin with an 8-3 record, made terrific shots in both the seventh and ninth ends to prevent Canada from scoring multiple points.

Scotland also beat Canada in the round-robin, and hopes to avenge last year’s gold-medal-game loss to the same Martin team at the world championship in Grand Forks, N.D.

“Hopefully we get a rematch with those guys on Sunday,” said Murdoch. “They’re great champions, they’re the best team in the world. Still are. That would just be hard to believe. It would just be one of the most amazing things to win the gold-medal game and beat the best team in the world three times in a row, and we’re going to be trying hard for that. Hopefully it happens.”

Canada now drops to the semifinal today at 4 p.m. (all times Atlantic) on TSN.

On Saturday, the playoffs continue with the Page playoff three vs. four game at 10 a.m. on TSN when Switzerland’s Markus Eggler, who’s taken over shot-calling duties from Ralph Stoeckli, plays 2008 world-championship bronze-medallist Thomas Ulsrud of Norway. The winner advances to the semifinal, while the loser will play for the bronze medal against the semifinal loser on Sunday at 1 pm.