Italy beat Denmark by 7-3 in Tuesday afternoon’s tenth round-robin session of the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2022 to bounce back from their morning defeat by Netherlands.
The other winners in this session were Canada, who beat Germany, by 11-7, to stay unbeaten at the top of the table; Scotland, who beat United States, by 9-7; and Switzerland, who were 9-3 winners over Norway.
These results mean that three teams — Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden — share second spot behind the Canadians.
Italy versus Denmark
In the game between Italy and Denmark, the teams went into the break with Italy leading by 3-2, thanks to an Italian score of two in the fifth end.
In the eighth end, Italy’s skip Joel Retornaz scored two points when he hit out a Danish stone.
In the ninth, the Danes gave up a steal of two and immediately conceded, with a final score of 7-3.
His team’s morning loss was still playing on Retornaz’s mind when he came off the ice after this win. He said, “It was a tough loss this morning. We had an early lead and we should have brought that game home. We didn’t perform well this morning and we lost that game… I’ll say it again.”
He then went on, “It was important to go back on the ice this afternoon and have a solid performance. We wanted two wins today, but that win is good for us and for our momentum.”
Germany versus Canada
The game between Canada and Germany opened with a single steal for the Canadians in the first end.
Then, in the second, Germany’s skip Sixten Totzek played a nose-hit to score three points and take a 3-1 lead.
The Germans then moved onto a 5-1 lead when Canada gave up a steal of two in the third end.
After this, the Canadians fought back, scoring three points in the fourth end and another three in the sixth end, with a hit by skip Brad Gushue at the back of the house.
This gave Canada a 7-6 lead, and they went on to win by 11-7. This was a sixth win for Canada, who remain unbeaten at the top of the table.
Afterwards, Gushue said, “That felt like a morning game where we didn’t wake up for a few ends. We were fortunate to be only down by four. But we kept fighting and got a couple of misses out of them. I’m happy with 6-0, but we need a little bit more consistency.”
Norway versus Switzerland
In the game between Norway and Switzerland, Switzerland scored one in the first end to open the scoring then, in the third end, Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell drew inside three Swiss counters to score one point and level the game at 1-1.
Switzerland led by 5-3 when, in the eighth end, their skip Yannick Schwaller played a hit to score four.
Norway then conceded the game, with Switzerland winning by 9-3.
With this win, Switzerland joined Sweden, who sat out this session, and Scotland, in second place on the table.
Scotland versus United States
The Scots were up against United States in this session.
As they played the fifth end, Scotland were ahead by 4-2 when United States skip Korey Dropkin drew for three points to take a 5-4 lead.
The game was tied at 6-6 in the eighth end when Scotland’s fourth player Ross Paterson played a draw for two points and an 8-6 lead.
In the tenth end, Paterson played a nose-hit to take out an American stone, score one point, and complete the 9-7 win that puts his team into joint second place.
Afterwards, Scotland skip Kyle Waddell said, “I think we’ve been playing pretty well; we’re building. We had an iffy day on Sunday, but it feel like yesterday and today, we’ve just been stepping up gradually and we’re fairly happy with today.”
He also spoke about the log-jam of teams on the table behind Canada, “It looks like a bit of a mess in the middle part of the round-robin, but I’m not worried about that. We play Finland tonight and I’m not thinking any further than that. I know if we win, we will put ourselves into a good spot.”
Session ten results: Scotland 9-7 United States; Germany 7-11 Canada; Italy 7-3 Denmark; Norway 3-9 Switzerland.
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