Niklas Edin will have the opportunity to accomplish what his coach Peja Lindholm last managed to pull off back in 2004 鈥� win a Ford World Men鈥檚 Curling Championship for Sweden.
Edin and his rink of third Sebastian Kraupp, second Fredrik Lindberg and lead Victor Kjall 鈥� who are coming off a victory at the Victoria Curling Classic two weekends ago in the World Curling Tour event 鈥� defeated Scotland鈥檚 David Murdoch 6-5 on Friday night.
The victory in the Page Playoff 1 vs. 2 game qualifies Edin for the championship final on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
鈥淚 think we controlled the game, it was close on the scoreboard, but we felt we controlled the game,鈥� said Edin, who has atleast silver medal in his back pocket now. 鈥淚t feels amazing to finish that way and go straight to the final having secured a medal already.鈥�
With the defeat, Scotland drops down to the semifinal today at 4 p.m. to face the winner of this morning鈥檚 Page 3 vs. 4 game between Denmark鈥檚 Rasmus Stjerne and sa国际传媒鈥檚 Brad Jacobs at 11 a.m.
Sweden got off to the perfect start on Friday, forcing the Scots into taking one with hammer in the first end, drawing for two in the second for a quick 2-1 advantage and getting Murdoch to take one again in the third as Edin dictated the play.
Edin also went through a hole with his last stone in the sixth to remove a counter and force Murdoch to draw for one and a 3-3 tie.
Murdoch was in trouble again in the eighth, but a run-back to move four stones allowed him to score one and trail 5-4 after Edin鈥檚 deuce had presented him with a 5-3 lead in seven.
Edin cracked on his last stone in nine, giving up a steal of one to tie it at 5-5, but he carried hammer into the 10th where he drew the four-foot for the victory.
鈥淚鈥檓 obviously disappointed not to get through to the final in the first opportunity. I still feel we are playing pretty well. A couple of key shots we just didn鈥檛 quite make tonight,鈥� said Murdoch, who has rotated a five-man crew around him.
Michael Goodfellow played lead while Greg Drummond drew in at second with Tom Brewster at third for the playoff game.
OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS: The Sochi Olympics flame will burn bright for Scotland, sa国际传媒, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, China and Switzerland who have all unofficially qualified for the 2014 Games, along with host Russia.
Denmark, China and the Swiss all earned their berths here.
Two more spots will be filled at a December qualifier, which the World Curling Federation announced Friday would be held in Fussen, Germany, from Dec. 11-15.
In the women鈥檚 event, Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, sa国际传媒, USA, Denmark, Korea and Russia (as hosts) have all qualified directly for Sochi.
EXTRA ENDS: sa国际传媒鈥檚 Ryan and E.J. Harnden both led their positions percentage wise during the 17 round-robin draws. Ryan curled 91 per cent, tied with Jialiang Zang atop the lead鈥檚 position, while E.J. was 89 per cent, topping seconds. Ryan Fry was tied for second among thirds at 86 per cent and skip Brad Jacobs slipped to sixth at 82 per cent by week鈥檚 end.
China鈥檚 Xiaoming Xu and Murdoch led the thirds and skips respectively.
As a team, sa国际传媒 still finished tied for first with China at 87 per cent.
