MOOSE JAW -- The beat just keeps rolling on for Team Canada at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship.
Brad Jacobs and crew improved to 3-0 through the first two days of the tournament with a 9-3 victory over Korea in their lone game Sunday at Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw.
It was almost as comfortable a win as a team could have at such a highly competitive event, as Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert roared out to a 5-1 lead through three ends, never let Korea’s Changmin Kim score more than a single point, and were largely in control from start to finish.
“Some of these teams can beat you if they get an early lead on you, but we've been really good at controlling and coming out of the gates good early,” said Kennedy, who shot 95 per cent and was still third-best on the team against Korea. “We'll try to keep that going against the tough teams that we're about to meet here over the next few days.”
Kim, third Hyojun Kim, second Eubin Kim and lead Jeongmin Pyo were able to put a bit of pressure on Canada in a couple of ends, but Jacobs always found a way to turn things around in an instant -- even when things didn’t go absolutely according to plan.
A perfect example came in the fourth when Jacobs brushed a guard with his final shot but still made the take-out on a Kim counter in the four foot, eventually forcing Korea to hit and stick for one.
All told, Canada curling 96 per cent as a team, with Hebert hitting 100 per cent, Jacobs 98 per cent and Gallant 89 per cent.
“I think we're staying in the moment and focused on trying to make each and every shot,” Kennedy said. “Hitting our weights and I thought Brad has had a really good feel for where to put the broom. Our skip is comfortable right now and I think that's probably the most important part.”
Getting off to the perfect start through the first two days was especially important with the tough games against elite teams coming up -- like Monday afternoon against the tournament’s top seed in Scotland’s Bruce Mouat.
“We've kind of always thought ‘let's beat the teams that we should beat if we play well’,” Kennedy said. “Then we'll try to have some really good games against the top teams. Banking these wins just makes everybody feel comfortable and settled in. It allows us to go into those big games without a worry about our record. We just go out and play our asses off and see what happens.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have all sorts of confidence thanks to their perfect record. Kennedy harkened back to how they were feeling when things were rolling at the Brier, and we all know how things turned out there. The key now will be to keep things on an even keel.
“One thing I've learned over the years is to not get too high when things are going great and not get too low when things are going bad,” he said. “All it takes is one bad game and the questions are the exact opposite. Where did your confidence go? We're doing our thing, we're playing well and our skip is comfortable and we'll just keep rolling.”
One thing that’s for certain is Canada will have Moose Jaw’s support the whole way. A total of 4,134 fans took in Draw 4, and crowds of that size will likely be the norm for Jacobs’ draws going forward.
“It's goosebumps every time you're out there,” Kennedy said. “You know what, honestly, twice in that game I'm kind of looking around hoping I don't wake up. It's almost a little bit of a dream out there right now and exactly what we've been hoping for as a team… It's like having a fifth man out there. Just a wonderful place to play. Perfect atmosphere, great building, just loving every second of it.”
None of the games in Draw 4 went the distance as the United States (Korey Dropkin) defeated Switzerland (Yannick Schwaller) 12-7 in eight ends in a back-and-forth contest, Norway (Magnus Ramsfjell) downed Czechia (Lukas Klima) 7-3 in nine ends and Sweden (Nicklas Edin) took a 10-5 nine-end win over Japan (Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi) in nine ends.
Standings through four draws are as follows:
Canada (Jacobs) 3-0
China (Xu) 2-0
Scotland (Mouat) 2-0
Czechia (Klima) 2-1
Switzerland (Schwaller) 2-1
United States (Dropkin) 2-1
Italy (Retornaz) 1-1
Norway (Ramsfjell) 1-1
Sweden (Edin) 1-1
Austria (Genner) 0-2
Germany (Muskatewitz) 0-2
Japan (Yamaguchi) 0-3
Korea (Kim) 0-3
Be sure to keep an eye on for up-to-date results and and standings from throughout the week.
