Canada’s Team Dunstone picks up ninth win at LGT World Men’s Curling Championship

OGDEN, Utah — Team Matt Dunstone’s focus has turned from playoff positioning to fine-tuning for the playoffs at the 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship.

The Canadian champs from Winnipeg will almost surely land in the playoff qualification round scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. (all times Eastern) with either a third- or fourth-place finish secured in the 13-team round robin thanks to an emphatic 9-2 win Thursday afternoon over Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz (4-8).

That will mean Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton will have hammer in the first end against a yet-to-be-determined opponent in a game that will send the winner to Friday’s 5 p.m. semifinals.

So from that perspective, consider the win over Germany a mission accomplished.

“You’re just trying to build at this point,” said Dunstone. “We knew in this game, playing a team that was out of it, (we were) trying to win the hammer, get an early lead, (and then) you might suck a little bit of life out of them and I think that’s what you saw. To get off in six ends, have a bit of a break now before another game, it feels great obviously. I like where we’re at.”

There’s still a shot — albeit a long one — for Canada to get the coveted bye to the semifinals that accompanies a top-two finish in the round robin, but for that to happen, Canada needs to beat Norway’s Team Andreas Haarstad (0-11), and hope that Czechia’s Team Lukas Klima (3-8) can beat Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte (9-2). If Canada, Scotland and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin all finish with identical 10-2 records, the tiebreaker scenarios heavily favour Sweden finishing first and Scotland second based on their superior Draw Shot Challenge totals.

“The curling gods would really have to come through obviously,” said Dunstone with a smile. “Scotland’s a great team, but you know, worst-case scenario, we have hammer in the quarterfinal tomorrow locked up. So that’s why that game (against Germany) was big. So we’ll go out and hopefully win a game tonight and see where the chips fall.”

Besides Canada, Scotland and Sweden, Team John Shuster of the United States (8-3), Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli (8-3) and Team Stefano Spiller of Italy (8-4) are also playoff bound, and Canada’s likely playoff opponent on Friday will come from the latter three teams. Canada would finish no worse than third with a win against Norway. The playoff qualification round will see the third-place team meeting the sixth-place team, while fourth will play fifth, with the winners going to the semis.

The semifinal winners will play for gold on Saturday at 4 p.m., with the semifinal losers battling for bronze on Saturday at 11 a.m.

All of which is to say Canada will step onto the ice Thursday evening against Norway with a firm intent to play at a high level and carry confidence into the playoffs on Friday.

“I really like where we’re at, but I still think tonight is a great opportunity to tighten things up a little bit,” said E.J. Harnden. “Regardless, we’re very well prepared heading into playoffs. I love what we’ve done the last couple of games. The ice conditions have changed — a little bit slower, some frost is coming in. The way that we handle it, the communication that we’ve executed across the lineup from lead to skip, from brushers to the person in the house, to the person in the hack, giving them the information to help make the shot — I think we’ve done a tremendous job. I really like what I’m seeing there. I think we’re going to need that, obviously, going into the playoffs.”

Not lost in all of the playoff prep is the looming storyline that E.J. Harnden is about to play the final few competitive games of his splendid career, after announcing his retirement earlier this season.

“I’ve had moments throughout the Brier and even this week where it’s (been about) managing emotions,” he admitted. “I’d probably be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling some of those emotions here and there. And I think that’s a good thing, too. At the end of the day, I’m here to win and I’m trying to treat it like any other event.

“I’m proud of the way that I’ve been able to go about that, and the mindset that I’ve brought to every single game, and I’m really looking forward to the next few games and finishing this off, hopefully, on top of the podium.”

In other Thursday afternoon games, Sweden scored a seven-ender in an 11-2 win over Czechia; Italy turned back Norway 7-4; and Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (5-7) got past South Korea’s Team Changmin Kim (3-9) 9-3.

Scotland, Switzerland, the United States, China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (5-6) and Poland’s Team Konrad Stych (2-9) all had byes on Thursday afternoon.

TSN/RDS2, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide live coverage of Canada’s round-robin games, in addition to all playoff games. CLICK HERE for their complete broadcast schedule.

The list of teams, schedule information, and live scoring can be found by CLICKING HERE.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/nouvelles-media/.