Canada falls to Scotland, will play China for bronze at world curling playdowns
CBC
There will be a new champion at the BKT World Men's Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask. this year. And it won't be Canada.
Brad Jacobs dropped a 7-4 decision to Scotland's Bruce Mouat in semifinal play Saturday at the Temple Gardens Centre. Mouat, who eliminated defending champ Niklas Edin of Sweden in a morning qualifier, will play Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller for the gold medal.
WATCH | Canada's Jacobs falls to Scotland's Mouat, will play for bronze at men's curling worlds:
Down one with hammer in the 10th end, Jacobs tried an angle-raise triple-takeout for the win rather than draw for the tie and an extra end. The Canadian rocks spilled out and Scotland stole two for the victory.
"We fought, we battled, we tried," said Jacobs. "They were better than us today. But we're going to regroup here and come out and try to get ourselves on the podium and get a bronze medal."
Jacobs and his third-ranked team of Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert will play China's Xiaoming Xu in the third-place game.
Xu beat Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell 8-7 in the morning qualifier but dropped a 7-3 decision to Switzerland in the other semifinal.
Scotland will try to win its second world men's title in three years. Mouat beat Canada's Brad Gushue in 2023 at Ottawa.
"We've maybe not had our best week but we definitely had our best games today against Sweden and against Canada," said Mouat, the fifth seed in the playoffs after an 8-4 round-robin record.
Scotland entered the Canada game with confidence after eliminating Edin, a seven-time champion.
The top-ranked Mouat also handed Jacobs his only loss of round-robin play.
A Scotland deuce in the second end was sandwiched between Canada forces. Two blanks followed ahead of an interesting sixth end.
Mouat had a chance to sit three but his hit-and-stick rolled just out of the rings. Jacobs' final rock rolled out and Mouat's soft-weight hit for three generated just a pair.
The host team brought the sellout crowd of about 4,200 to its feet in the seventh end with a highlight-reel double-takeout to tie the game.
