Team Canada has locked up first place and will get a bye into the semifinals this weekend at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, taking place at Temple Gardens Centre.
Canada moves to 10-1 after defeating Austria 8-2 in seven ends.
Canada finishes off the round robin at 7 p.m. tonight against the United States and will play its semifinal on Saturday at 3 p.m.
"We’ve all been curling a lot, but I think it’s also big that we’ve played these last few games in fewer than 10 ends. We’ve saved our bodies quite well. But we’ve just locked up a lot of good stuff. I think we’ve locked up the hammer, rocks, and all that good stuff," said Canada skip Brad Jacobs.
The other five teams that have qualified for the playoffs are Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and China, although the order from two to six has yet to be determined.
Canada opened with the hammer, and Jacobs made an open draw for two to take the lead.
The Canadians kept the pressure on in the second end. Austrian skip Mathias Genner needed to draw the full four-foot but came up short, giving Canada a steal of one.
Looking to score one, Genner wrecked on the guard, resulting in another steal of one for Canada.
Facing a draw against three in the fourth, Genner made a double takeout to score one and get on the board.
Canada then made a lineup change. Alternate Tyler Tardi came into the game in relief of Ben Hebert at lead to give him a rest coming down the stretch. Tardi is a two-time world junior champion, having won in 2018 and 2019.
Tardi said he learned from Hebert that he was coming into the game.
"As good as it is, I didn’t expect to play this week. That’s not my goal — to be on the ice. It’s to support the guys as best I can, and yeah, it’s a great bonus. But at the end of the day, I’m here to make sure the guys can perform as best as they can and be unnoticed but needed, which was my goal coming into this week," Tardi said after the game.
With Austria sitting shot rock, Jacobs blasted the rock out. The shot went a bit sideways and was measured to confirm one point for Canada, taking a 5-1 lead at the fifth-end break.
Austria once again faced a barrage of Canadian stones. With his last rock, Genner had an open hit for one, making it a three-point game.
In the seventh, Genner froze to a Canadian stone back four-foot. Jacobs picked out the rock to score three and make the final 8-2.
In other action
Germany was efficient with the hammer as they picked up a 9-4 win over the United States.
Trailing 7-6 to Japan, Italy scored one to send the game into an extra end. In the extra, Italy's draw came in heavy and Japan won 9-7.
Switzerland was down 5-4 with the hammer in the 10th end but a light double take out for two gave them a 6-5 win.