When they came onto the ice to face each other in Thursday afternoon’s 16th round-robin session of the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2022, Sweden and Scotland shared second place on the rankings, along with United States, who sat out this session.
However, an 8-2 victory by Sweden moved them into a clear second place behind Canada. Both Sweden and Canada now have seven wins, but the Canadians have played one game less.
The other winners in this session were Czech Republic, who beat Finland by 10-4; Germany, 10-6 winners over Norway; and Switzerland, who beat Korea by 9-7.
Scotland versus Sweden
Sweden took an early lead against the Scots, scoring one in the first end and then stealing one more in the second end, for 2-0.
In the third end, Scotland’s fourth player Ross Paterson, was facing four Swedish counters but managed to draw inside them all to open Scotland’s scoring with one point.
Sweden took a 4-1 lead into the fifth-end break then, in the sixth, Paterson played a hit, but got his angles wrong and gave up a steal of two points to the Swedes, who moved onto a 6-1 lead.
A final draw by Sweden skip Niklas Edin for two points and 8-2 finished off the game, with the Scots conceding before the stone came to rest.
Korea versus Switzerland
When Korea played Switzerland, both teams still had realistic play-off chances.
In the fifth end, Switzerland held a 4-2 lead when Korea’s fourth player Kim Soo-Hyuk tapped out a Swiss stone to score two points and level the game at 4-4.
In the next end, Switzerland skip Yannick Schwaller hit out a collection of stones in the house to score two points and re-take the lead, at 6-4.
The Swiss led by 8-7 going in to the tenth end. Korea came close to stealing one to tie the game again, but the tightest of umpire’s measures judged a Swiss stone to be closer, to give them one more point for a 9-7 win.
This was a sixth victory for the Swiss, who now share fourth place with Scotland. Afterwards, Schwaller said, “We’re very happy for that win, especially if you look at the standings. We needed it, they can throw so precisely, that was a tough one.”
He added, “Our last two games were not very good. We got in our own way and could have won both. We’re happy that we’ve got the turn-around and now we’re going for two wins tomorrow.”
Germany versus Norway
Germany faced Norway in this session and Norway held a 2-1 lead when in the third end, Germany skip Sixten Totzek played a draw to score three points and take a 4-2 lead.
The Germans still held the lead, at 5-4 when, in the seventh end, Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell drew his last stone to score two points and take a 6-5 lead.
Germany went on to win by 10-6 when Norway’s Ramsfjell had a complete miss with the last stone of the tenth end.
This result puts Germany on five wins, still with a possibility of reaching the play-offs. After the game, Totzek said, “We had problems with our draw-weight but in the end we managed.”
Moe generally, he added, “I’m happy with how we’ve played in our games, but not with the results. We’ve had close games and could have pulled out wins, but we didn’t. One or two more wins would have been helpful but right now, anything’s possible – two more wins for sixth place.”
Czech Republic versus Finland
In the game between Czech Republic and Finland, the Czechs had a 5-2 lead when, in the fourth end Finland skip Kalle Kiiskinen played a hit attempting to clear the house. But one Czech stone just clung on to give them a steal of one.
In the next end, Kiiskinen was just too heavy with his final draw, to give up two more points to the Czechs.
At the break the Czechs led by 8-2, and went on to win by 10-4.
Session 16 results: Czech Republic 10-4 Finland; Scotland 2-8 Sweden; Germany 10-6 Norway; Korea 7-9 Switzerland.
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