Teams in group B played their final round-robin draw of the championship. At the end all the teams at 4-2 won their games and it will be Sweden to qualify to the semifinals thanks to their Draw Shot Challenge result. Hungary and Canada will play a tie-breaker for the spot in qualification games.
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Jaakko Uusitupa
Sweden and Hungary had no difficulties winning their games against England and Slovakia and were at 5-2 after round robin. It meant that Canada needed a win over Japan or otherwise it would be out.
Canada started by taking a single point with the hammer but then Michiko Taira and Kenji Tomabechi of Japan responded by taking a massive five well helped by several missed take-outs by their experienced opponents. The flow continued also in the third by Japan stealing a single and in the fourth forcing Canada to take it back and be 6-2 down without the hammer. During the half-time break Canada did switch their order of play that had remained the same during whole tournament so far. Now it would be Susan O'Connor delivering the first and last stone and Ross Dean the three between. Canada managed to tie the game and even be one up by stealing three next ends.
In the eight Japan had their place stone at the back of the button and a second stone next to it with Canada one of theirs almost touching the place stone at the top of the button. Susan O'Connor threw a guard top of the house with her last but it didn't curl just enough despite the yelly Canadian crowd encouraging Ross to sweep it. Michiko Taira had the shot to win the game by hitting the side of Canadian stone and bumping it a bit away from the button. The shot was called and silent crowd saw the stone sliding just past the guard and hitting its target, but it just didn't have enough strenght to bump the stone far enough. So it was only a single point for Japan and an extra end.
In the extra end Japan tried to draw to the button with all their stones but probably they had just already given all they got and therefore failed to execute a single shot. More experienced Canada now played solid curling and just took out all Japanese stones. After Japan had no stones to draw with it was five points and a victory for Canada who will meet Hungary on Thursday in tie-breaker game.
Also another even more surprising comeback was seen. Estonia took four points in the seventh against Italy and had 8-3 lead. The Italians didn't give up and were lying four before the last Estonian rock. All the stones were in the open, but for some reason the Estonians didn't play a shot with heavy weight. It just touched the stones in the house, didn't move any of them out and left the Italians a draw for five. They made it and also stole two points in the extra end granting a 10-8 victory.
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