Koe’s rink retains perfect start

Canadians overcome Norwegians

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA

The 3-0 record looks pretty dominant but nothing has come easily in the Olympic tournament so far for Canada’s Kevin Koe.

Koe and his Calgary teammates played another titan struggle against Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud on Thursday, their lone game of the day.

The Canadians came away with a 7-4 win — thanks in large part to a crucial miss by Ulsrud in the ninth end — and are off to a dream start in a tough Olympic field.

“It was a close game, could have gone against us,” Koe said. “Obviously any time you win here it feels good because that one especially was a grind. We made the shots when we had to coming down the stretch.”

Canada’s games have all gone down to the wire and the results have included a 5-3 victory over Joel Retornaz of Italy and a 6-4 win over Kyle Smith of Great Britain.

Team Canada, which also includes third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing and lead Ben Hebert, is off until Friday night when they take on winless South Korea (6:05 a.m. ET in Canada).

Koe expects to see Norway again before this tournament is over, assuming his own team gets to the playoffs.

“They (Norway) just never go away,” Koe said. “They ’re just about up there in age with us, they’ve been around so long.

“We had a chance to maybe bury them early and I missed a bad one in end three, and after that they played great, like most teams do.”

Ulsrud had a chance to give his team the lead in the ninth end and tried a thin double to score two. However, his shot flashed completely and Canada stole two instead to cement the victory.

“They played awesome and it was just a couple of uncharacteristic misses by (Ulsrud) in eight and nine, but I still think they’ll be around at the end of the week,” Koe said.