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, April 6, 2016.Georgios Kefalas/The Associated Press
With an emphatic rout of the tournament host, Canada has sent notice that it's the team to beat heading into the playoffs at the men's world curling championship.
Kevin Koe's Calgary rink finished the round robin in first place at 10-1, capping its run to the playoffs with an 8-2 win over Switzerland in Thursday's final draw at St. Jakobshalle arena.
After posting a few shaky wins to start the tournament, Canada rounded into form and almost ran the table. Koe's only hiccup was a 4-3 extra-end loss to defending champion Sweden on Wednesday.
"It's a pretty tough field, lots of good teams, and obviously we would have taken [10-1] at the start of the week," Koe said. "So it's been a great week and now we're looking forward to the playoffs."
Canada, rounded out by third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing, lead Ben Hebert and alternate Scott Pfeifer, rebounded from its lone loss with a 6-4 win over Norway earlier Thursday to clinch first place, then followed up with a victory over Sven Michel's Swiss side, which finished a disappointing ninth at 4-7.
Canada will have the hammer when it plays Denmark (8-3) in the 1-2 Page playoff game on Friday. Rasmus Stjerne and the Danes finished second with an 8-7 win over Sweden (6-5) in the last draw. After starting his title defence with four wins in a row, Swedish skip Niklas Edin struggled mid-tournament and will be heading home.
"The experience helps; I've won 1-2 games, lost 1-2 games," said Koe, a world champion in 2010 with a different team. "We won't get too high or low about the outcome, but obviously we want to win that game and get to the final as soon as possible."
Denmark took Canada to an extra end last Sunday, with a shaky Canadian team scoring three in the 11th for an 11-8 win.
"We played a good game against Canada, but they seem to have picked up their pace since then but I think we got to stick to our process right now and give ourselves a chance on every shot," said Stjerne, a former world junior champ. "Keeping the task at hand is most important and don't focus on what's coming because they are going to come big at us and I think we'll just try and prepare our best."
The 3-4 Page playoff will go Saturday between third-place Yusuke Morozumi of Japan (8-3) and fourth-place John Shuster of the United States (8-3).
Norway (7-3), which started the day in a playoff position, just missed a top-four finish after Japan and the United States each won twice on Thursday.
Canada hasn't won a men's world title since Glenn Howard's victory at St. Jakobshalle in 2012.