By Canadian Press

Canada’s Koe beats Switzerland’s De Cruz at world men’s curling championship

Apr 5, 2019 | 11:17 AM

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Canada’s Kevin Koe improved his playoff chances at the world men’s curling championship on Friday morning with a 10-3 victory over Switzerland’s Peter De Cruz.

Koe opened with a deuce and scored five when Switzerland’s final stone picked in the second end. The teams shook hands after the minimum six ends.

The win left both teams with 8-3 records with two draws of round-robin play remaining. Canada will play Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands on Friday night.

Six of the 13 teams in the field will make the weekend playoffs.

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Entering the early draw, Sweden’s Niklas Edin (9-1) and Japan’s Yuta Matsumura (8-3) were the only teams with guaranteed playoff spots. 

Tiebreakers are not used at this event. Head-to-head records and cumulative last stone draw statistics are used to break ties.

The top two seeds will get semifinal berths. Qualification games (No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5) are set for Saturday morning with the semifinals to follow. The medal games will be played Sunday.

The last Canadian team to miss the playoffs at this competition was the rink skipped by Jack MacDuff in 1976. He went 2-7 that year in Duluth, Minn., and missed the four-team cut.

Canada has never missed the playoffs at both the men’s and women’s world championships in the same season.

Canada’s Chelsea Carey finished eighth at last month’s playdowns in Silkeborg, Denmark. The women’s world championship was first held in 1979.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press