A win for Scotland in Friday evening’s 20th — and final — round-robin session of the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2022 meant that they joined the six-team line-up that now goes forward to the weekend play-off and medal games.
Scotland beat Switzerland by 9-7. Meanwhile, Netherlands beat Korea by 8-7 after an extra end, and this result means that, despite their defeat to Scotland, Switzerland complete the qualification games line-up, in sixth place.
In the two other games of this session, Canada confirmed their place at the top of the rankings with a six-end 9-2 win over Denmark that gives them last stone advantage in their semi-final and medal games, while Italy beat United States by 8-4.
Scotland versus Switzerland
In their game against Switzerland, the Scots had a strong start, scoring two in the first end, then stealing singles in the next three ends to lead by 5-0 after four ends.
When they played the seventh end, Scotland were ahead by 6-1, but a nose-hit by Switzerland skip Yannick Schwaller produced a score of three points to reduce Scotland’s lead to 6-4.
In the eighth end, Scotland’s fourth player Ross Paterson drew his second stone onto the button inside three Swiss stones to increase Scotland’s lead to 8-4.
The Scots went on to win by 9-7 to rank fourth overall. They now face fifth-ranked United States in the qualification games.
Afterwards, Scotland’s skip Kyle Waddell said, “I thought we played really well, and in the sixth end we did exactly what we wanted – we said we wanted to score. To be fair to them, they played a really good end in seven. We tried not to be too worried. I’m really happy with where we’re at, especially after the bad day yesterday, we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice yesterday.”
Netherlands versus Korea
Korea played Netherlands with the Koreans knowing that a win was essential for them to make it to the play-offs.
In the fifth end, with the score tied at 3-3, their fourth player Kim Soo-Hyuk added two more points with a hit, to increase Korea’s led to 5-3.
Later, in the ninth end, Dutch skip Wouter Goesgens also scored two points with a hit to take a 7-6 lead.
In the tenth end, with one second left on the Korean time-clock, Kim played an in-off on a very short, very wide guard to score one point and force an extra end, at 7-7.
Netherlands’ Goesgens then hit out a Korea stone in the extra end to score one point and give the Dutch an 8-7 victory.
This result means that Korea ranked eighth overall, while, although Switzerland had the same won six, lost six record as both the Koreans and Germany, they had the best Draw Shot Challenge score to qualify.
Denmark versus Canada
Canada faced Denmark in this session, knowing that a win would rank them first overall and give them last stone advantage for the rest of the event.
The Canadians scored two points in the first end and then Denmark’s skip Tobias Thune played a hit and roll onto the button to score one point in the second end.
In the third, Canada’s skip Brad Gushue played a tap-up to score three points and increase his team’s lead to 5-1.
Canada went on to win by 9-2 in just six ends and afterwards, Gushue said, “We played really well tonight and applied a lot of pressure on Denmark. We’re getting more comfortable with the ice, which is a good thing heading into the play-offs as well.”
He added, “We’ve struggled to get hammer all week, and now we don’t have to worry about it. That’s an advantage to have, especially if we come up against Nik in the play-offs.”
United States versus Italy
Italy and United States played the fourth game of the session, knowing they had both already reached the qualifiers.
In the third end, Italy’s skip Joel Retornaz played a draw to score three points and open the scoring in the game.
In the seventh end, with the score at 5-2 to Italy, American skip Korey Dropkin scored two points with a hit to reduce the Italian lead to 5-4.
After this, Italy went on to win by 8-4, to rank third overall and play Switzerland in the qualification games.
With the round-robin complete, the semi-final line-up is set. First-placed Canada will play the winner of the Scotland versus United States qualification game, while second-placed Sweden will be up against Italy or Switzerland.
Session 20 results: Scotland 9-7 Switzerland; United States 4-8 Italy; Netherlands 8-7 Korea; Denmark 2-9 Canada.
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