Canada's wheelchair curlers make Paralympic history with unbeaten round-robin

Canada made wheelchair curling history on Thursday as the first team at any Paralympics to complete round-robin play without a loss.

Skip Mark Ideson, second Ina Forrest, third Jon Thurston, lead Collinda Joseph and alternate Gil Dash raised their record to 9-0 in Milan Cortina with a 7-3 win over the United States, a few hours after beating South Korea 6-3.

Resiliency and believe in each other, Thurston told reporters, has been the key to Canada's success.

"We've trained a lot together," he said. "We know what everybody's capable of and we've stayed calm in the moments where we've had pressure on us. We've done really well at producing points when we needed them. 

"A couple of tight games that came down to the eighth end, but we were able to produce the points we needed to get the win or an extra end."

The Canadians clinched the top playoff seed against the South Koreans (5-4), who they face in Friday's semifinal at 5:05 a.m. ET.

Two-time defending champions China (8-1) and Sweden (5-4) will battle in the other semifinal.

China's lone loss came at the hands of Canada on Tuesday. The Canadians earned a playoff spot later that day by defeating 2022 silver medallists Sweden to move to 6-0.

Canada, ranked second in the world behind China, has reached the wheelchair curling podium at every Paralympics since the sport's addition in 2006. It won the first three gold medals and took bronze at the last two editions.

Up 4-3 after five ends against the U.S., Canada stole two points in the sixth and another in the seventh.

The Americans struck first, taking a 2-0 lead in the first end. The Canadians drew even in the second before the teams exchanged points in the following two ends.

Against South Korea, Canada jumped out to a 4-1 edge after four ends, led by Ideson, but it was a one-point game after the sixth.

Thurston described Ideson as a "great leader" with his calm demeanour.

"I can't say enough about him," said Thurston.