 OGDEN, Utah -- A playoff berth is in the bag, but Canada's Team Matt Dunstone has loftier goals to accomplish at the 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship. Dunstone's Winnipeg team, rounded out by vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton, stretched its win streak to six Wednesday night at the Weber County Ice Sheet with a 9-5 victory over Czechia's Team Lukas Klima (3-7). But with two games to play in the round robin, the stakes will get significantly higher with each passing game as 2026 Montana's Brier champs take aim at winning Canada's first World Men's Curling Championship gold medal since 2017, when Walker played lead for Team Brad Gushue's world champs. "It feels good," said Dunstone of the playoff spot. "First step is done; now we're playing for positioning, right? We just have to keep the pace with Sweden, Switzerland, and Scotland, and hopefully we can do that, and go out and win two games tomorrow. We want to feel good going into the playoffs, regardless of what game we're playing." Canada, 8-2 after Wednesday night's victory, entered the game with its playoff position already secured based on results from the afternoon draw; in fact, all six playoff qualifiers were determined, with only the final ranking to be determined on Thursday. Joining the Montana's Brier champs in the playoffs will be Switzerland's Team Marcus Hoesli (8-2), Sweden's Team Niklas Edin (9-2), Scotland's Team Ross Whyte (8-2), Italy's Team Stefano Spiller (7-3) and Team John Shuster of the United States (7-3). The top two teams from round-robin play will be seeded directly into the semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m., while third will play sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games at 11 a.m. on Friday. The winners of the qualifying-round games will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will play for gold on Saturday at 4 p.m., with the semifinal losers battling for bronze on Saturday at 11 a.m. Canada still has designs on a top-two finish, but will need to win twice on Thursday -- at 4 p.m. (all times Eastern) against Germany's Team Marc Muskatewitz (4-6) and 9 p.m. against Norway's Team Andreas Haarstad (0-10) -- and then see where things shake out with the other contenders for tiebreaker scenarios, both in terms of head-to-head records and the Draw Shot Challenge standings, where Canada finds itself ranked 11th among the 13 teams. "Our (first) goal was to get in the playoffs," said Ryan Harnden. "Hopefully we can finish strong here and get two wins. You never know, maybe we'll get a bye to the semis, but if not, we're happy we're in the playoffs, so we're feeling good." Against the Czechs Wednesday night, Canada stole four of its first five points. In the first, Klima had to make a tough double takeout just to give up a single, and in the second, Klima was light on his last-rock draw, giving Canada a 2-0 lead. The Czechs fought back to tie it with a third-end deuce, and managed to force Dunstone into hitting for a single point in the fourth. But in the fifth, Klima's tough cross-house double takeout attempt for two or more points didn't curl enough, and Canada stole a pair to make it 5-2. The teams then traded singles before Klima connected on a perfect in-off takeout to score two in the eighth end and trim the Canadian lead to 6-5. But the Canadians put the game away with three in the ninth on Dunstone's open takeout and precise roll for the third point. "We controlled the game," said Ryan Harnden. "(The ice) was quite slow, so we tried to keep it as simple as we could. Get a lead and just kind of lean on them, and that's exactly what we did." Wednesday night's win marked the end of three straight morning-night split draw days for Canada, which gets its first chance to sleep in since Sunday. "I can't wait to sleep, man," said Dunstone with a smile. "We battled (with) our backs against the wall, too. These were all games that we had to win after a tough opening weekend, and we did exactly that, and we've given ourselves a chance to get where we want to be in the playoffs. "I have all the confidence in the world (for Thursday's final two round-robin games). We're going to come out and be sharp." In other Wednesday night games, Sweden romped 9-1 past Poland's Team Konrad Stych (2-8); Scotland was a 7-5 winner over Norway; and China's Team Xiaoming Xu (4-6) doubled South Korea's Team Changmin Kim (3-8) 8-4. Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Germany, and Japan's Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (3-7) all had byes on Wednesday night. |
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OGDEN, Utah -- A playoff berth is in the bag, but Canada's Team Matt Dunstone has loftier goals to accomplish at the 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship.
