Canada’s Dunstone wins 8th straight, will face Italy for semifinal spot at men’s curling worlds

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Canada won its eighth game in a row but couldn’t earn a direct berth to the semifinals at the men’s curling world championship.

Matt Dunstone’s Winnipeg-based team closed out round-robin play with a 7-5 extra-end win over Norway in the evening draw after beating Germany 9-2 earlier Thursday at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah.

Canada improved to 10-2, tied with Sweden and Scotland atop the preliminary-round standings, but finished as the third seed in a tiebreaker.

“That’s exactly what we said after we dropped two on Saturday and Sunday, which feels like seven weeks ago — let’s go 10-and-2,” said Dunstone. “And we did exactly that. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out to get the bye [to] the semi, but we’ve won eight in a row. Obviously, we’re doing a lot of things well.

“It’s tough going out and playing a game that didn’t have much to do with the standings. But it was a nice little leg stretcher to get ready and we’re going to turn it up a notch [Friday].”

Qualification game vs. Italy

Sweden and Scotland earned semifinal spots, while the next four will play in a qualification round.

Dunstone will meet sixth-seeded Italy (8-4) on Friday morning, while Switzerland faces the United States for a spot in the evening’s semifinal draw. The bronze- and gold-medal games take place Saturday.

Canada defeated Italy 9-2 in its second round-robin game on the tournament’s opening day.

“We’re going to have to be good,” said Dunstone. “[Third] Amos [Mosaner] and [second] Sebastiano [Arman] have been here, been there, done that. But that’s a team we feel comfortable playing. We’re just going to have to try and grab a multiple [score early and manage the scoreboard from there.”

Scotland rolled past Czechia 8-2 in the evening draw to secure its bye, while the Swedes closed their preliminary round with an 11-2 rout of Czechia in the afternoon.

In other evening results, Switzerland topped the U.S. 9-5 and China edged Poland 6-5.

Dunstone is representing Canada for the first time at the senior level after winning this year’s Montana’s Brier in St. John’s.

Canada hasn’t claimed world gold since Brad Gushue’s rink captured the title in 2017.