Canada's skip Kevin Koe competes during a round-robin match between Canada and Sweden at the men's curling world championships 2016 in Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday.Georgios Kefalas
Flirting with extra ends finally proved costly for Canada at the men's world curling championship.
Kevin Koe's Calgary rink missed a chance to clinch top spot in the round-robin standings, losing 4-3 to defending champion Sweden in Wednesday's afternoon draw.
Canada pulled out two extra-end wins earlier in the tournament, but this time they came up short. With Sweden holding the hammer in the 11th end, skip Niklas Edin made no mistake with his tapback for the victory.
"You never want to lose, obviously," Canadian lead Ben Hebert said. "We were 8-0 and playing pretty well. We had lots of opportunities, and we just missed them."
Canada's curlers, which include third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing and alternate Scott Pfeifer, took the loss in perspective, as they can still clinch first place with a win over Norway in Thursday's early draw.
"No sweat," Hebert said. "We win tomorrow, we're in first place and in the 1-2 [playoff] game with hammer.
"We're going out tonight to have dinner with our families. We're in Switzerland. We're 8-1. It's not the end of the world."
Canada is ahead of a group of five teams tied for second at 6-3, including Norway. Thomas Ulsrud's rink had a chance to start the final day of round-robin play alone in second, but they fell 6-4 to Japan in Wednesday's late draw.
With the win Japan joined the logjam at second, as did Edin with his second victory of the day, a 6-4 victory over South Korea. Denmark is the other team tied for second.
Earlier in the day, Canada beat South Korea 9-2, clinching the win with three points in the seventh end.
After its match against Norway, Canada finishes its round-robin play against host Switzerland in Thursday's final draw.