United States defeated Canada, by 10-6, on Thursday morning in the Orleans Arena to push themselves up the rankings into joint-second place and sit in prime position to make the weekend’s play-off stage.
There were also wins for Norway, 10-6 over Denmark, and Italy over Switzerland, that keep their play-off hopes alive. While Netherlands defeated Scotland 5-4 in the fourth game of the session.
United States versus Canada
United States started the game against Canada with last stone advantage and put that to good use with a score of two points.
United States led 3-2 going into the fifth end, then in that end United States skip, Korey Dropkin played a draw to the back of the eight-foot with his final stone to score four points and increase their lead to 7-2 at the break.
The teams traded two-point scores over the next three ends with United States taking a 9-6 lead into the ninth end.
In that end, Dropkin drew his final stone into the four-foot for a single point, after which, Canada conceded with the score 10-6 to United States.
A delighted Korey Dropkin said afterwards, “It was a team effort out there. All the guys were throwing well and we got some breaks out of the other team and we were able to capitalise and get rocks in good positions. It really paid off at the end of the game.”
“There’s no easy game here, we’re just trying to play the other rocks, and that game we were playing yellow and we came out with the win.”
Norway versus Denmark
Norway opened the scoring in their game against Denmark with two points after skip Magnus Ramsfjell was left with an open draw to the house with his final stone.
Denmark hit back immediately with two points in the second, then stole a single in the third after Ramsfjell was unable to remove the Danish counter on the button.
The teams then traded two point scores over the next three ends, giving Norway a 6-5 lead after six ends.
In the seventh end, Norway stole two points after Danish skip Tobias Thune’s attempted raise triple take-out could only clear the first stone, leaving two Norwegian counters in the four-foot and increasing their lead to 8-5.
Norway stole another two points in the eighth end to lead by 10-5, after Thune was heavy with his final draw facing two Norwegian counters. Denmark scored a single in the ninth, then conceded defeat, with the score 10-6 to Norway.
Italy versus Switzerland
Switzerland and Italy traded single-point scores for the first four ends of their game, before Switzerland blanked the fifth end to go into the break level at 2-2.
In the sixth end, Italy stole a single point when Swiss skip, Yannick Schwaller was heavy with his draw.
After the sides scored single points in the next two ends, Italy stole a single in the ninth end to take a 5-3 lead.
A promoted take-out for the win by Italian skip Joel Retornaz with his final stone, removed the Swiss counter and left Italy sitting with four shot stones.
However, when Swiss skip Schwaller was in the hack, Switzerland ran out of time with one stone remaining and automatically forfeited the game.
Retornaz said after their win, “It’s a great win for us. We’re happy we got this and the most important thing was to have a strong performance in this game because that’s what we will need for the rest of the week. Every win counts now and we are ready to go out and fight.”
Netherlands versus Scotland
Scotland faced Netherlands and opened the scoring with a single in the first end and followed that with a steal of one in the second end for the early lead.
Netherlands scored a single point in the third end, then blanked the fifth end, looking for a multiple point score. They got that score of two points in the sixth end, when their skip Wouter Goesgens, played an open hit-and-stay to level the game at 3-3.
Scotland scored a single point in the eighth end to take a 4-3 lead, then Netherlands blanked the ninth end to hold the last stone advantage going into the tenth end.
In that final end, Scotland’s fourth player, Ross Paterson, was left with a double take-out to clear the Netherlands counters from the house, but was only able to remove one. This left an open draw for Goesgens to score two points and take the 5-4 win for their second victory of the week.
Session 15 results: United States 10-6 Canada; Norway 10-6 Denmark; Italy W-L Switzerland; Netherlands 5-4 Scotland.
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