By Canadian Press

Canada’s Bottcher defeats Denmark’s Noergaard 7-5 at world men’s curling championship

Apr 3, 2021 | 1:11 PM

CALGARY — Canada’s Brendan Bottcher defeated Denmark’s Mads Noergaard 7-5 on Saturday for his third straight victory at the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship.

Bottcher stole a pair in the fifth end for a 6-2 lead and sealed the win in the 10th end when Danish fourth Mikkel Krause’s final stone was heavy. That eliminated the need for Canada to throw its last rock.  

“The first couple games we were building some momentum and really today I thought we came out of the gate really strong,” Bottcher said.

The Edmonton-based team earned victories over Scotland and Japan on Friday’s opening day at the Markin MacPhail Centre. Round-robin play continues through Friday afternoon.

Bottcher’s teammates Darren Moulding, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin were all in form as every player threw at least 86 per cent in Draw 4. 

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Noergaard throws second stones for Denmark (0-3), a team that’s making its world championship debut.

Krause, the low man on the day at 66 per cent, made a draw for a single in the first end for Denmark’s only lead of the game.

Bottcher scored deuces in three of the next four ends, with a hit and roll setting up a steal of two in the fifth. Krause was light on his draw against three.

Denmark had a chance at a pair to get back in the game in the seventh, but Krause barely rubbed a guard to give up another steal.

Bottcher made a rare mistake in the ninth when he was heavy with a draw, allowing Denmark to pull within two points. Krause was sitting one under cover in the 10th but watched his final stone roll just beyond the 12-foot ring.

The Canadian team had the rest of the day off ahead of a Sunday morning matchup against Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz, an 8-5 winner over Germany’s Sixten Totzek. 

In other early games, Sweden’s Niklas Edin defeated John Shuster of the United States 8-5 and Scotland’s Bruce Mouat posted a 9-4 win over Jaap van Dorp of the Netherlands.

Two more draws were scheduled for later Saturday. 

Canada was the lone team at 3-0. Italy, Norway, Switzerland and the Russian Curling Federation were next at 2-0.

Scotland was 2-1 while Sweden, Japan and the U.S., were even at 1-1. China, Germany and South Korea were 0-2 and Denmark and the Netherlands were 0-3.

The top two finishers in the 14-team round-robin earn byes to the semifinals on April 10. Teams sitting third through sixth will compete in qualification games with No. 3 to play No. 6 and No. 4 to take on No. 5. 

Qualification winners advance to the semifinals. The gold and bronze-medal games are April 11.

Head-to-head results, and then pre-game draw-the-button distances, solve ties. The top six teams will earn spots for their respective countries at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

No spectators are allowed in the WinSport Arena, which was also the case at the recent Canadian men’s, women’s and mixed doubles championships. 

Two Grand Slams are next on the bubble calendar ahead of the world women’s playdowns in late April.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2021. 

The Canadian Press