Edmonton: Canada faced Sweden in Friday (7 April) evening’s Page 1v2 play-off game at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2017 – in Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum, Canada – and now progress directly to Sunday’s (9 April) final.
While Canada go straight to Sunday’s gold medal final at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2017, Sweden now have a second chance of making it there by competing in the sole semi-final against the winner of Saturday’s (8 April) Page 3v4 play-off between Switzerland and USA.
Canada made the better start. Having last stone advantage, their skip Brad Gushue drew his final stone of the first end into the house to open the scoring with a point. After that, they moved into a 3-0 lead with single point steals in the next two ends.
Even when Sweden got onto the score-board with one point in the fourth end, Edin’s final double around stones on the button failed to clear its second target and the Swedes had to settle for just one point, rather than the score of two they were looking for.
Canada blanked the fifth end, taking a 3-1 lead into the break, and then, in the sixth end, Gushue’s attempted tap-out went wrong to give Sweden a steal of one point that reduced Canada’s lead to 3-2.
In the seventh end, Gushue played a take-out, and with one of his stones lying on the wing, scored three points for a 6-2 advantage.
In the eighth end, Gushue’s attempted clear-out jammed at the back of the house, leaving Edin with a straightforward draw for two point, to reduce Canada’s lead to 6-4. In the ninth end, Gushue picked out a Swedish stone with his own final effort to leave another Canadian stone lying. Canada scored one point and move their lead to 7-4. Canada then ran the Sweden out of stones in the tenth end to win the game, at 7-4, and maintain their unbeaten record in the event.
Statements of Winning Captains- World Men’s Curling Championship 2017
Brad Gushue; skip, Canada (after 7-4 Page 1v2 play-off game win over Sweden): “We played well. I thought overall our team was pretty sharp tonight. We missed a couple of opportunities, but I was very happy with how we played overall. Once we got the steal in the second [end] we really felt like we were in control of the game.”
Niklas Edin; skip, Sweden (after 4-7 Page 1v2 play-off game loss to Canada): “We were half an inch away from stealing in the first end and then we would have a whole different situation. Then we were close to getting two in the second [end] but rolled out on the take-out there. We didn’t get that and a bit of frustration creeps in. It’s uphill from there. But then, we played a solid game, it’s just those early points that didn’t go our way.”