Gangneung, Republic of Korea - In a game that was tighter than the 7-4 result indicates, Canada beat Norway in Thursday afternoon's third session of men's round-robin play at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 to stand alone at the top of the table, undefeated. Other session winners were Italy, who beat United States by 10-9 in a rollercoaster game; Great Britain who had a 6-5 last-stone win over Japan; and Switzerland, who beat Denmark by 9-7 for their first win so far. Korea and Sweden sat out this session. Canada opened against Norway with a score of two points in the first end, with Norway scoring a single in the second end. Then, a mistake by Canada skip, Kevin Koe, gave Norway a single point steal in the third end to level the game at 2-2. Canada scored one point in the fifth end to go into the break 3-2 up, but Norway took the lead in the sixth end when their skip, Thomas Ulsrud, hit out a Canadian stone to score two points for the 4-3 lead. After this, it was Canada all the way, scoring one point in the seventh end, stealing one point in the eighth end and two more points in the ninth end for the 7-4 win that puts them at the top of the rankings on three wins. In their game against United States, Italy scored five points in the third end for a 6-1 lead but, undeterred, the Americans fought back, with a score of three and then a steal two points in the next two ends to tie the game at 6-6 at the break. Italy moved ahead again with a score of three points in the sixth end, but once again the United States levelled with two points in the eighth end and one point in the ninth end to tie the game at 9-9. In the tenth end, Italy used last stone advantage to score a single point giving them a 10-9 win. Great Britain scored two points in the third end for a 3-1 lead, but Japan scored a two points of their own in the seventh end to level the score at 4-4. The teams swapped single points in the next two ends and, in the tenth end, with his team clearing everything out of the house, Britain's skip Kyle Smith had a straightforward draw to score one point for a 6-5 win. These wins put Italy and Great Britain in joint third place on the table, behind unbeaten Canada and Sweden. Switzerland took a 5-3 lead into the fifth end break of their game against Denmark and kept their progress going with two points in both the seventh and ninth ends to beat the Danes by 9-7 and record their first win of the tournament. The men's competition resumes tomorrow (Friday 16 February) morning at 09:05 Korea Standard Time (KST) with the men's fourth round-robin session. Men session three results: United States 9-10 Italy; Norway 4-7 Canada; Great Britain 6-Japan 5; Denmark 7-9 Switzerland. Standings after men session three (win-loss): Canada 3-0 Sweden 2-0 Great Britain 2-1 Italy 2-1 Japan 1-1 United States 1-1 Switzerland 1-2 Denmark 0-2 Korea 0-2 Norway 0-2 |