Sweden and Canada play in the LGT World Men’s Final
Defending champions Sweden beat Italy 8-4 while Canada won 8-5 over the United States in Saturday night’s semifinal game in the LGT World Curling Championship for men.
These results mean that Italy and the USA will play for bronze medals on Sunday morning and in the afternoon Sweden will play against Canada for gold medals and the world title.
In the match between Canada and the United States, after breaking the first end, Canadian jumper Brad Gushue played a double take-out to open the scoring with two points.
In the third end, the American skipper Korey Dropkin responded with a raise to make one and reduce the Canadian lead to 2-1. Canada led 3-2 when the team played the sixth end and when Canada’s Gushue struck for two, he built up his lead to 5-2.
In the ninth, the United States was 3-6 behind when Dropkin played a draw that scored two points by a referee’s measure, to go into the final end with just one point behind. In the final, Dropkins did not curl up enough, leaving Canada with two shots to win, 8-5.
After the game, Canada’s Gushue said, “The ice seemed okay. We had some bad throws early in the game, but we cleaned it up.”
He also talked about the advantage of qualifying directly for the semi-finals and thereby having a pass free and said: “It has been a long year and a lot of pressure, so resting for a few hours has definitely benefited everyone.”
He was also full of praise for his Swedish final opponents – “They play well. They are made for this event. They get to come here every year and enjoy it and play well. So there will be a match tomorrow. The advantage we have over playing them lately is that we have hammers to start with. “
Italy against Sweden
In the second semifinal, Sweden opened the scoring in the second end when the ships Niklas Edin played a full hit for two points.
In the fifth end, Sweden had a lead of 3-1 when Edin played an angle increase to score four points and give their team a transformative lead of 7-1. Italy responded in the sixth end when their skipper Joel Retornaz scored a point with a draw. Italy then had occasional steals in both the seventh and eighth end to reduce Sweden’s lead to 7-4. But in the ninth end, when Edin played a draw to score another point and take an 8-4 lead, Italy let in.
This win gives Edin the chance to play for his fourth world title in a row and his sixth world crown in total. After the match, he said: “It was fantastic. We focused really hard before the playoffs here. We were exactly what we did there.”
Speaking of the game-changing fifth end, he said, “We are really happy that we took the opportunity to score four points – a steal there and it could have been a completely different match. Overall, it was an outstanding achievement by all team members. ”
“A sixth gold medal would mean a lot, especially this season with Olympic gold. I think we are better than ever and if we win this one too, we would be happy with this whole Olympic cycle.”
Semifinal results: Canada 8-5 USA; Italy 4-8 Sweden
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