Team Canada off to strong start at World Men’s Curling Championship

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Team Canada is off to a strong start on home ice at the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw.

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In the opening draw on Saturday at the Temple Gardens Centre, skip Brad Jacobs and company picked up a 7-3 win over Team Japan before beating Team Germany 7-5 in the evening draw to improve to 2-0.

Team Canada, which also features third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert, will look to keep things going on Sunday at 2 p.m. when they take on Team Korea.

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Against Japan, the two teams blanked three straight ends before Canada opened the scoring with Jacobs making an open draw for the deuce in the fourth.

After Japan scored a single, Jacobs and the Canadians replied with another open draw for three points in the sixth to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

The Canadians forced Japan to another single after Jacobs made a double runback takeout in the seventh before scoring another deuce on a thin takeout in the eighth to put the game away. Jacobs led all players curling at 97 per cent in the game.

Just a couple hours later, Canada was back on the ice against Team Germany led by skip Marc Muskatewitz, who entered the tournament ranked No. 8 in the world.

In the first end, Canada stole a point before forcing Germany to a single in the second.

Following a blank in the third end, Canada then scored the first deuce of the game in the fourth with Jacobs making a delicate takeout before forcing Germany to a single point in the fifth.

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Canada responded with another deuce in the sixth and a steal of one in the seventh before allowing Germany back in the game in the ninth.

With Germany sitting one, Jacobs crashed on the guard with his final attempt before Muskatewitz made a perfect split to get two more rocks in the rings to score three which cut Canada’s lead to 6-5.

However, Canada would pull through in the final end. With Germany sitting one, Jacobs made a delicate raise with his final shot to score one point and secure the 7-5 win.

“Great day; couldn’t ask for more,” Jacobs told media after the second game. “Beat two good teams today in Japan and Germany.

“A little sloppy by me in nine; I missed one and let them back in it but great way to finish the game having to make a nice shot to win.

“Hopefully we have a lot of those opportunities this week.”

After Sunday’s game against Korea, Canada will be back on the ice Monday at 2 p.m. against world No. 1 Bruce Mouat and Team Scotland, who beat Austria in their opening draw.

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Then on Tuesday, Canada will face defending champion Niklas Edin and Team Sweden at 9 a.m. before taking on Joel Retornaz and Team Italy in the evening draw at 7 p.m.

And after getting strong support from the home crowd during the opening weekend, the Canadians are hoping to feed off the fans the rest of the way.

“It’s incredible,” said Gallant. “They were great. They were really supportive of us today.

“It’s going to be a great week if this keeps up.”

The 12-game round robin continues until Friday evening with the top six teams in the standings making the playoff round which begins Saturday.

tshire@postmedia.com

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