Brad Jacobs and Team Canada to play for gold after semifinal win over Norway

Brett Gallant will get his shot at an Olympic gold medal Saturday evening after Brad Jacobs and Team Canada won a hard-fought semifinal, 5-4 in an extra end over Rasmus Ramsfjell of Norway.

Gallant, who won a bronze medal with Brad Gushue at Beijing 2022, is the only member of the Jacobs team without an Olympic gold medal. Jacobs (Sochi 2014), third Marc Kennedy (Vancouver 2010) and lead Ben Hebert (Vancouver 2010) are all after a second one at Milano Cortina 2026.

The win for Canada was sweet revenge for the 8-6 loss to Norway in the morning’s final round-robin draw.

“I’m just proud of my teammates, I really am,” said Jacobs, who won Canada’s last Olympic men’s curling gold medal. “I’m proud of my teammates, I’m proud of the way we handled ourselves in that game. We played for each other. There’s nothing more that I like to see than them happy and succeeding because I know if that happens the same thing is happening for me.

“Really excited about this opportunity and grateful we get this chance.”

Canada will play the world’s No. 1 ranked team, Bruce Mouat of Great Britain in the final. Mouat, who barely made it to playoffs, scored two in the eighth end and stole two in the tenth to beat Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland, who had gone through the round robin unbeaten.

“We’re going to have to be great,” Jacobs said of playing the final against Mouat, who Canada defeated 9-5 in the round robin. “Obviously, they’ve had a bit of an up and down week, but they showed up when it mattered most in the semifinal and you know they’re going to do that, and I expect them to do the same, in the final.

“So just taking advantage of little opportunities that might be given to us throughout that game I think is going to be the difference maker.”

With Italy not making the semifinals it was a noticeably quieter Cortina Olympic Stadium as both tension-filled semifinals had fans sitting in nervous anticipation about the outcomes.

The Canada-Norway game saw both teams play with extra caution, doing all they could to prevent their opponent from scoring more than singles with last rock. It took slim errors for Jacobs to steal a third-end single and to allow the teams to strategically blank three ends.

Not once after blanking did either team manage to score a deuce in the next end.

The game’s only deuce came in the tenth when Norway got two to force the extra end. A long angle raise double take-out try by Jacobs got only one Norwegian stone and ultimately led to Ramsfjell drawing for the tying points.

The closest either team came to a two-ender before that was in the eighth when six excellent shots had Norway positioned to possibly score three. But a Kennedy angle raise take-out followed by Martin Sesaker’s try at a freeze that slid through the house turned things dramatically.

Ramsfjell almost bailed out his team with a superb hit and roll to a near freeze behind cover. But with his final stone Jacobs gently rubbed the Norwegian stone sideways to leave Canada sitting two. Ramsfjell had to hit and stick for one.

Jacobs, who skipped a different Canadian team to the gold medal in 2014, blanked the first end but then couldn’t capitalize on having last rock in the second. In a sloppy end that saw both teams miss several shots, Jacobs ended up having to draw against three Norway counters.

Jacobs got the second point in the next end after he executed a perfect hit and roll behind a guard. Ramsfjell rubbed that guard with his last rock to give Canada a steal of one.

Norway had relied heavily on skip Ramsfjell through most of the tournament. While his teammates all ranked near the bottom of the shooting percentage, Ramsfjell was ranked fourth and had been making end-saving and game-saving shots.

Hebert perfectly positioned his two shots in the fourth end to put Norway into chase mode immediately. By the time Norway dealt with Hebert’s stone in the house they had been forced into taking a single.

With Gallant shooting 98 percent through five ends, Canada took a 2-1 edge into the break, a sharp contrast from trailing Norway 7-2 at the same point in their round-robin game in the morning.

After the break, Canada scored singles in the sixth, ninth and eleventh ends while Norway countered with one in the eighth and their two in the ninth.

Canada outshot Norway by nine percentage points – 88-79 – with their averages ranging from 91 percent for Hebert to 84 for Jacobs. By contrast the only Norway player above 80 percent was Ramsfjell at 81.