Canadians prepare for ‘toughest game in curling’

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA Marc Kennedy has been in this exact position before, and the way things went the first time around made him nervous.

Kennedy is the third for the Canadian men’s curling team at the Olympic Winter Games, a team that won its final roundrobin game to qualify for the semifinals.

Kennedy and Team Canada lead Ben Hebert both played in an Olympic semifinal with Kevin Martin in Vancouver in 2010, and while they defeated Niklas Edin of Sweden, it was a game that had its perils.

“It’s the toughest game in curling,” Kennedy said.

“It was even tougher in Vancouver because we were going in undefeated and playing a team that was 5-4. In the back of your mind you’re thinking you should have a bigger advantage than just last rock.

“We played a little bit tentative and scared in that game and it almost bit us. Niklas made a few mistakes or we might have been ripe for the picking.

“I think we’re going to approach this a little bit different based on how this week went. We’re excited and we’re not going to play with any fear. We’re just going to go out and do what we do and hope it’s enough.”

Canada, skipped by Kevin Koe, beat Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark 8-3 to clinch second place in the round-robin standings, which gives the Calgary rink the hammer in Thursday ’s semifinal against John Shuster of the United States (6:05 a.m. ET in Canada).

The Canadians started the tournament with four straight wins but lost their next three, before rebounding to earn second place with a 6-3 record.

“There were some ups and downs and the three-game losing streak in the middle kind of put the fear in us and we came out and played well when we needed to, in order to get straight into the playoffs,” Canadian second Brent Laing said.

“We’ll lean on Marc and Ben a little bit now. They’ve talked to us a little bit about the pressure of that semifinal. It’s a different game than we are used to in Canada.”

Sweden, with Edin skipping again, finished first at 7-2 this week and the U.S. placed third with a 5-4 record. Switzerland (Benoit Schwarz) and Great Britain (Kyle Smith) also finished 5-4 and played a tiebreaker to see who would play Sweden. Switzerland won 9-5.

For Koe, there have already been some tense moments up to this point and making the medal round was no slam dunk.

“It was a bit of an up-anddown week here and a couple of days ago we were worried about being in playoff trouble,” Koe said. “So, to bounce back with a couple wins and jump up all the way to second place feels great.”