CurlingZone: Canada's Team Dunstone to play for gold at 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship

OGDEN, Utah -- Team Matt Dunstone (Photo: World Curling / Stephen Fisher) arrived in Utah for the 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship with two goals -- to win gold and to send EJ Harnden into retirement as a world champion.

Dunstone's Winnipeg crew is on the verge of accomplishing both goals after one of the most memorable and clutch days that a Canadian curling team has ever delivered at this event.

Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton will play Team Niklas Edin for the gold medal Saturday at 4 p.m. (all times Eastern) after two drama-filled playoff victories Friday at the Weber County Ice Sheet.

After grinding out a nailbiting victory over Italy's Team Stefano Spiller Friday morning in the playoff qualification round, the Montana's Brier champs produced another gem in beating Scotland's Ross Whyte 9-7 in the semifinal Friday afternoon.

"It feels incredible; what a game today," said E.J. Harnden, who'll cap his brilliant career on Saturday as he retires from competitive curling following this event. "What a battle. The perseverance, the grit that we showed as a team, as a unit, all day today was incredible. We always continued to support one another, made some amazing shots down the stretch and it was just phenomenal. I can't wait to play in a world championship final with this team."

They certainly earned it against the Scots, who brought a 10-game win streak into the semifinal (which is exactly what Team Canada will take into the gold-medal game).

Scotland opened the game with a pair, but unlike their round-robin game when Scotland dominated the Canadians, Dunstone delivered the message early that this would not be a repeat performance, making a wonderful runback takeout to score two in the third, and it was game on.

The teams traded singles, and then Scotland restored its two-point lead with a deuce in the sixth. But in the seventh, two terrific shots from Lott -- a double takeout followed by a hit-and-roll to sit frozen -- suddenly had the Scots on the run. Facing four, Whyte could only remove two Canadian stones with his last shot, setting the stage for Dunstone to draw for three to give Canada its first lead.

"I don't even remember how that happened," said Dunstone with a chuckle. "I kind of blacked out for the last half of the game, but yeah, we had them coming and going -- Colt made an unbelievable hit and it froze into them, and they were in the grease after that."

The teams traded deuces, leaving Canada in a one-point lead in the 10th with Scotland holding the hammer, and Dunstone essentially won the game with his first shot, a short raise that promoted three stones and left Canada sitting frozen on the button with the insurance point.

Canada defeated Sweden 10-3 in six ends in their round-robin game on Tuesday, and will be looking to win Canada's first World Men's Championship since Team Brad Gushue prevailed in 2017.

"Just because of the magnitude of the game, nothing has to change," said Dunstone. "I mean, we just beat one of the best teams in the world and did a lot of good things. We're going to have to do the same tomorrow and I think we can take a lot of confidence knowing that there's not a thing different that we have to do."

E.J. Harnden arrived at the arena early Friday morning for the elimination game wondering if he was about to play his last game. There are no "ifs" now.

"This definitely is going to be my last game," he said with a laugh. "There's no doubt about that. I mean, it's either gold or bust. So we'll give it everything that we have tomorrow.

"I could play another game right now (Friday night), although I don't want to. I want to sleep in and then let's go."

"It's going to be an emotional day tomorrow," added Dunstone. "I'm just really proud to be a part of it (with) one of the all-time greats. It's been an absolute pleasure to compete with him and to play with him, to win with him and (if) we have one more win in us tomorrow, what better way to go out than to have E.J. as a world champion and all of us as world champions."

Sweden advanced to the gold-medal game with an 8-6 extra-end win over Team John Shuster of the United States. Scotland and the U.S. will play for bronze Saturday at 11 a.m.

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