Switzerland jumps into first place in Utah
There were no heated arguments, swearing, nor consultations with on-ice officials.
And no swarms of Swedish fans on social media, offering finger-point emojis and memes.
Tuesday night merely featured two top-notch curling teams, getting it on at the Ogden Ice Sheet in Utah, home to both the 2002 and upcoming 2034 Olympic curling events.
Sadly, fans who hoped for a classic matchup at this 2026 world men’s championship were quickly disappointed.
It was a forgettable day for Sweden • Stephen Fisher-World CurlingNiklas Edin of Sweden ran into all kinds of trouble in the first end against Canada’s Matt Dunstone – courtesy of a ticked guard and burned rock – and dropped a steal of four to fall behind 4-0.
The score read 6-1 after three ends and 10-2 after five. Sweden scored one in the sixth end and conceded the match.
Edin and crew had lost their first game of the tournament earlier on Tuesday, falling 8-5 to Switzerland’s Marco Hoesli, who leads the 13-team field at 7-1.
Sweden is running second at 7-2, with Canada and Scotland, skipped by Ross Whyte, both at 6-2.
Italy’s young Stefano Spiller is at 6-3 after a rough start, and leads the way among teams that are obviously having fun.
(Just watch the playful interplay between the diminutive skip and his towering third Amos Mosaner, and you’ll get the idea.)
“We understand how big this game was and it had a different feel out there,” Dunstone told Curling Canada. “It felt like a bit of a playoff game tonight, it had that energy from our group.
“I thought right from the get-go we won that energy battle, had the dominant first end and got a break and just took it from there.”
Matt Dunstone • Stephen Fisher-World CurlingThe Canadians defeated a revamped Team China 8-4 earlier on Tuesday. They battle Switzerland bright and early (9:00 a.m. local time) on Wednesday.
The teams were informed the stones would be textured late Tuesday night.
“We’ll see what we get,” said Dunstone. “Obviously conditions are going to look a little bit different, so whoever catches on the quickest is probably going to win that game.”
Home Team USA, skipped by John Shuster, sits at 5-3.
The top six teams at the end of the round robin (ending Thursday) make the playoffs.
Germany (Mark Muskatewitz) is at 4-5, China (Xu Xiaoming) is 3-5 along with Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Changmin Kim of Korea is 3-6, Poland’s world rookies skipped by Konrad Stych are 2-6 and Norway’s Andreas Haarstad sits at 0-8.