MOOSE JAW -- Team Canada just keeps rolling along at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, and now they’re officially back in first place.
Canada’s Brad Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert improved to 6-1 with a commanding win over Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell during Draw 12 at Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw.
And ‘commanding’ might not be a strong enough word -- Jacobs had Norway scrambling to avoid disaster in almost every end, and that led to their 8-3 victory in only eight ends.
A major key was catching on to the ice conditions, with Canada not taking long to adjust to things in the early going and using that to their advantage throughout the contest.
“I think we're probably the best-prepared team when it comes to hitting the rocks mid-week, based on how we practice,” Jacobs said. “So, it was never even an issue, we talked about it, we trusted what we were seeing right from practice, and we just put the necessary releases on our stones, and continued to hit our weights. So we played pretty good, that's another big win, and we’re happy to be 6-1.”
While the teams exchanged single points over the first three ends and Norway took a 2-1 lead, it was Canada who had the pressure on the whole time. That led to a three-spot for Jacobs in the fourth and a 4-2 lead, and after holding Norway to one in the fifth, Jacobs wouldn’t let Norway hit the scoreboard again.
A single point in the sixth, steal of one in the seventh and steal of two in the eighth finishing things off early and gave Canada their comfortable win.
Things could have actually gone even better for Jacobs, but to his credit, Ramsfjell found a way to escape some dangerous situations where Canada could have put up big ends.
That was no surprise, and another testament to the quality of competition in Moose Jaw this week.
“Every team is going to try their hardest, never quit, never going to give up, and you expect them to continue to make shots,” Jacobs said. “Nobody's going to give anyone a game here. That's a good team, and we know that we need to just continue making shots in order to close that game out and it's about taking advantage of your opportunities.
“I think one of the main things we need to continue to do right now and moving forward is just stay mentally strong. We played seven games, we've got five more to go. We've just got to make sure we get good rest recovery between games here, and come out refreshed and ready to go in the next game.”
That was a key factor Wednesday morning, as Jacobs played Italy Tuesday evening and didn’t get to bed until 12:30 p.m. once all their post-game activities were done. Then they were up and about at 6 a.m. for the 9 a.m. draw.
“The key is how you activate,” Jacobs said of how they got up to speed after so little rest. “I was soaked in sweat from around 8:15 until 9:15. We did a really good activation, and even when we put on our gear, the body was warm, we had the blood flowing, and that's good… Now we get to relax this afternoon and we're going to be putting our therapists to work for the rest of the week here, they're going to be earning their compensation.”
You can see how the game played out with SportsCage’s live blog from the game .
Other results from Draw 12 saw Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller defeat Scotland’s Bruce Mouat 11-7 to see both rinks move into a tie for third place with 5-2 records. Sweden’s Niklas Edin downed the United States’ Korey Dropkin 7-1 and also moved to 5-2. Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi picked up his third wn with with a 7-4 victory over Korea’s Hyojin Kim
Standings heading into this afternoon’s Draw 13 are as follows:
Canada (Jacobs) 6-1
China (Xu) 6-1
Scotland (Mouat) 5-2
Switzerland (Schwaller) 5-2
Sweden (Edin) 5-2
Czechia (Klima) 4-3
Norway (Ramsfjell) 4-3
Germany (Muskatewitz) 3-4
United States (Dropkin) 3-4
Japan (Yamaguchi) 3-5
Italy (Retornaz) 2-5
Austria (Genner) 0-7
Korea (Kim) 0-7
The top six teams after the round robin advance to the playoffs beginning Saturday.
Be sure to check out SportCage’s live blog from each of Canada’s games throughout the week and follow along with all the up to the minute scores at www.worldcurling.org.
