Although they got some bad breaks, Canada still came away with a 4-2 win over Italy to improve to 5-1 at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship at Temple Gardens Centre.
Second Brett Gallant and third Marc Kennedy had a couple of shots not go their way as they curled 86 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively. However, it helps when skip Brad Jacobs curls 99 per cent.
“You don’t have to be tentative out there at all because you know that he’s really feeling it. It just manifests through the team when he’s throwing that well. We’re all feeling pretty good about our games,” Gallant said following the game.
Canada held the hammer in the first end. Italian skip Joel Retornaz made a double with his last rock to get out of trouble. That left Jacobs a draw to the four-foot for the single point.
In the second, Retornaz’s first rock was an attempted takeout on the Canadian stone on the button. The shot overcurled and opened up an opportunity for Canada. Jacobs, with his last rock of the end, drew to the top of the four-foot, leaving Retornaz a draw for one to tie the game.
The third end was a back-and-forth battle, with the Canadians and Italians exchanging takeouts that resulted in a blank end.
Retornaz attempted a runback double to get out of trouble in the fourth, but only removed one rock, leaving Jacobs with an open draw for two and a 3-1 lead for Canada.
In the fifth, Jacobs made a perfect angle raise takeout to sit one at the top of the button. Retornaz found the side of the button with his final stone to score one, making it 3-2 at the fifth-end break.
Starting off the sixth end, Marc Kennedy pulled off an angle double raise takeout to lay three. A couple of double takeouts by Italy bailed them out and forced a blank end.
After getting into some trouble early in the seventh end, when Kennedy’s runback took out one of Canada’s rocks in the house, Jacobs made a tapback for one to restore Canada’s two-point lead.
“Welcome to high-level curling, man. I threw them both pretty good. The one in six, I actually probably threw worse and got a little bit lucky. We weren’t trying to get that one off the button, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” Kennedy said.
“Then the one in seven, I threw it good. I probably missed it by a quarter inch on that high guard and ended up getting rid of all mine.”
Retornaz made a double takeout with his first rock in the eighth end to set up the blank and retain the hammer heading into the ninth.
In the ninth, more tough luck for Canada: a runback by second Brett Gallant went awry, leaving Italy laying three. However, Kennedy made a pair of double takeouts to get Canada out of trouble. It left Italy with a blank to hold on to the hammer and a two-point lead going into the final end.
A missed double takeout by Retornaz with his first rock in the 10th end left Canada laying one. Jacobs made a double to secure the win.
In other action
Germany scored 11 straight points to defeat Japan 11-3.
Austria nearly pulled off a major upset. They scored three in the eighth end but fell to China 8-7.
In a nailbiter, the United States stole one in the 10th end to tie their game with Czechia at 6-6. Czechia would hit and stick for one in the extra end to win 7-6.