18 February 2026
Men’s play-offs go down to the wire at Olympic Winter Games
Great Britain had a dominating performance against United States of America when they won 9-2 in just six ends in Wednesday afternoon’s eleventh men’s round-robin session.
United States of America had hammer in the first end, and with his last stone, Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat played a double take-out to remove two American stones that were lying on the button, leaving one of his own. United States of America’s skip Daniel Casper also played a double take-out, but only could remove one and Great Britain stole their first point.
In the second end, Casper had the chance to draw for one point, but due to heavy weight and also excellent sweeping from Grant Hardie, Great Britain stole their next point.
Great Britain were lying four when Casper came to play his last stone, with the centre of the house wide open. He opted for a draw, but he was too heavy and the Brits stole a game-changing four points and took a 6-0 lead.
After a blanked fourth end, United States of America were finally able to get some points on the board in the fifth. Great Britain’s Mouat played a skilful double take-out with his last stone, tucking his shooter behind an American stone to become shot stone. However, Casper responded, playing a raise to remove this British stone and score two, bringing the scoreline to 6-2.
In the sixth and final end, Great Britain had hammer, and when skip Mouat came to play his last stone, they had three in the house, but United States of America were lying shot stone. Mouat then played a promotion take-out removing the American counter and one of his own stones to score three. This was enough for United States of America to concede and Great Britain left the ice 9-2 winners.
Following this big win, Bruce Mouat said, “It felt like we were close most of the week, we just had maybe one or two shots in a game that were going the wrong way for us, and this time we felt like we were getting breaks, which we felt like we probably hadn’t had most of the week. So, it was just a matter of time before it came and it’s a nice point to do it, but now horrible that we have to wait and see what results go our way hopefully.
And about having to wait to find out their semi-final fate, he said, “You’re obviously watching other sheets now and it’s not the decision you want to be in. You want to obviously be in control of your own destiny. But now seeing all these other teams still try to get into the play-offs, so it’s hard because obviously you still want everyone to do well but you’re kind of supporting the opposition at times. It’s a weird situation to be in, but we obviously want the best for ourselves.”
Canada faced Italy in the session already with qualification for the semi-finals. They secured an 8-3 win in a seven-end game and are now confirmed the number two seed in the play-offs bracket.
Italy blanked the first end before getting their first point in the second, thanks to a take-out on a single lying Canadian stone by skip Joel Retornaz.
The Italians then went onto to steal another two points in the third end when with his last stone, Canadian skip Brad Jacobs could only remove two out of four Italian counters.
In the fourth end, with Italy holding a 3-0 lead, Canada were lying one when Jacobs came to play his final stone. Using an Italian stone lying in the house, he played a raise to place his shooter in scoring position, confirming the Canadians’ first two points.
From this point on, Canada held the lead. In the fifth, Italy’s Retornaz had the chance to score for one with a take-out on a single Canadian stone, but he missed, resulting in a Canada steal.
After good build up play from Canada in the sixth end, they were lying four. Retornaz attempted to draw for a single point, but was caught on one of Canada’s stones, allowing them to steal a big four, bringing the scoreline to 7-3 in favour of the Canadians.
When Retornaz came to play his last stone in the seventh end, Canada were lying two, but when his double take-out attempt was unsuccessful and he only removed one counter, Canada stole one. Italy then conceded and Canada won 8-3.
Following this win with the qualification under their belt, Brad Jacobs said, “It feels great, especially after the slow start. We were struggling, we were battling but we were able to get a deuce back and we settled in back after that and we started to really work together to map the sheet and figure out our stones. I think we had a set tough boulders out there that fooled us early and then we just got a couple of uncharacteristic misses out of Italy — they were pretty frustrated — and it turned into a blow-out which was not expected.”
A score of two in the first end got Switzerland off to a good start in their game against Norway in this session and by the fifth end break, the score was 6-3 in favour of Switzerland. The teams then swapped singles in the sixth and seventh ends.
In the eighth, Switzerland had three stones in the house when Norwegian skip Magnus Ramsfjell came to play his final stone. He played a freeze so that the Swiss only had one counter, however Swiss fourth Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel then played a precise take-out to remove this Norwegian stone to score four. Norway then conceded and Switzerland walked away with their eighth consecutive win and guaranteed top seed in the play-offs.
In the final game of this session, Czechia secured their second win of Milano Cortina 2026 when they beat People’s Republic of China 10-5. By the ninth end, Czechia held a 9-5 lead and when a double take-out attempt from People’s Republic of China’s skip Xu Xiaoming could only remove one Czech stone, Czechia stole a point and People’s Republic of China conceded.
After these games, Great Britain now sit third on the rankings with Italy and Norway close behind in fourth. It will come down to their final round-robin games tomorrow to determine who will join Switzerland and Canada in the semi-finals.
Find all men’s play-off scenarios here.
Find live scores from the men’s team curling at Milano Cortina 2026 here.
Find the full men’s team curling schedule and results here.
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