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Sweden’s Niklas Edin claimed yet another men’s world curling championship with a 9-6 win over Canada’s Matt Dunstone on Saturday.
The 40-year-old Edin extended the record for world titles to eight in his career. He’s also skipped Sweden to an Olympic medal of every colour.
But his team arrived in Ogden, Utah, coming off an uncharacteristic 2-7 record at the Olympic Games in February.
Edin, vice Oskar Eriksson, second Rasmus Wranaa and lead Christoffer Sundgren recovered their form for the world championship.
They were ruthlessly efficient Saturday in converting hammer into two points four times in the game, while holding Dunstone to a pair of deuces.
Canada’s Matt Dunstone delivers the rock during the gold medal match against Sweden at the men’s curling world championship on Saturday, April 4. (Tyler Tate/The Associated Press)
Dunstone and vice Colton Lott, who made their world championship debut in Utah, and second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden settled for the silver medal.
The foursome out of Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club replicated Canada’s result at the women’s world championship in Calgary, where Kerri Einarson skipped the host country to a silver medal.
Sweden, Canada and Scotland capped pool play with identical 10-2 records, but Sweden and Scotland ranked higher than Canada in a tiebreaker of last-stone-draw rankings.
Dunstone came from behind to beat Italy 9-7 in a playoff game before beating Scotland 9-7 in a semifinal Friday.
Sweden had a bye to the semifinals and beat the United States 8-6 in an extra end to advance.
Edin’s draw to the four-foot rings in the eighth end Saturday rubbed on a Swedish stone, but spun inward just enough to score two for an 8-5 lead.
Dunstone needed to draw for a piece of the button to score one in the ninth. Canada trailed by two coming home without hammer.
The Canadian skip missed an attempted angle raise to lie two in the 10th end. Edin didn’t have to throw his final stone of the game.
The Swedes curled 90 per cent to Canada’s 87, while Edin posted 95 per cent accuracy to Dunstone’s 78.
“They showed today why they’re eight-time world champions,” Dunstone told World Curling.
“It’s unfortunate for sure. Wish (we) could have put a little bit more pressure on them throughout the game, but I mean again they were just making everything under the sun and we were chasing the whole game.”
Scotland’s Ross Whyte was an 11-6 winner over John Shuster of the U.S. for the bronze medal earlier Saturday.
Brad Gushue skipped the last Canadian team to win a men’s world title in 2017 in Edmonton.
E.J. Harnden, who played his last competitive curling game, tearfully embraced his younger brother Ryan after the game.
The 42-year-old won Olympic gold with Brad Jacobs in 2013 and a combined four Canadian championships as a teammate of Dunstone, Jacobs and Gushue.
Saturday’s silver medal at the world championship was Harnden’s fifth, including one when he was an alternate for Gushue in 2022.
TSN’s Vic Rauter called his final curling game after 40 years as the voice of the sport for the broadcaster. The 71-year-old joined TSN in 1985.