By Canadian Press

Canada’s Koe beats South Korea’s Kim 6-5 in opener at men’s curling worlds

Mar 30, 2019 | 5:49 PM

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Canada’s Kevin Koe made an open hit for the single point and a 6-5 extra-end victory over South Korea’s SooHyuk Kim in Saturday’s opening draw at the world men’s curling championship.

Canada third B.J. Neufeld set things up nicely with a pair of quality shots. He made a brilliant double peel and followed with a throw that cleared the other stones and also tapped the lone South Korean stone off the 12-foot ring.

Koe, Neufeld, second Colton Flasch and lead Ben Hebert were scheduled to play Russia’s Sergey Glukhov later Saturday at the Enmax Centre. Glukhov dropped an 8-2 decision to Scotland’s Bruce Mouat in his opener.

In other Draw 1 games, Japan’s Yuta Matsumura topped Italy’s Joel Retornaz 6-4 and Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands scored two in the 10th end for a 6-5 win over American John Shuster.

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Kim, the world No. 49, had little to lose against a top-ranked team with the home crowd on its side.

The 33-year-old skip wasn’t afraid to be aggressive. He delivered a nice angle-raise runback to sit shot stone in the first end before drawing for one.

Koe, 11 years his senior, was also in form.

He drew for three points in the second end and nailed a hit and roll in the fifth that led to a single and 4-2 lead heading into the break.

The Canadians regained hammer in the sixth by forcing South Korea to a single and used it to blank the next two ends.

In the ninth, with Canada sitting one in a crowded house, both skips were off on their final draw attempts. Kim was light and Koe was wide as Canada took a single.

Needing a deuce to force an extra end, Kim caught a break when Koe missed a double takeout on his final throw. Kim coolly drew to the eight-foot ring for the pair. 

St. John’s, N.L., skip Brad Gushue won silver for Canada at last year’s world championship in Las Vegas.

Koe last represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where he finished fourth. The two-time world champion went undefeated earlier this month to win the Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon, Man. 

The top six teams at the end of round-robin play will qualify for the playoffs starting April 6. Medal games are set for April 7.

Notes: Kim earned a spot in the field with a 7-3 win over England in the inaugural world qualification event last January in New Zealand. … With their home rink booked, the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes moved across town to the Nicholas Sheran Arena for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday night.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press