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Sweden drops 6-5 decision to Scotland for first loss at world men’s curling

Apr 2, 2019 | 2:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Sweden’s Niklas Edin suffered his first loss at the world men’s curling championship on Tuesday morning.

The defending champion dropped a 6-5 decision to Scotland’s Bruce Mouat in the early draw at the Enmax Centre. Edin fell to 5-1 while Mouat improved to 2-3.

“We knew it was going to be a close one and they played really well,” Edin said. “I don’t think Bruce missed a single shot in the whole game.”

Mouat shot 94 per cent while Edin came in at 88 per cent.

Canada’s Kevin Koe (5-0) was scheduled to play Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz (1-4) in the afternoon draw.

Switzerland’s Peter De Cruz (5-0) also started the day with an unbeaten record. He was set to meet American John Shuster (4-1).

In other early games, Italy’s Joel Retornaz dumped Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell 10-4 and Japan’s Yuta Matsumura needed an extra end to get by South Korea’s SooHyuk Kim 8-7.

Round-robin play continues through Friday night. The six-team playoffs begin Saturday and the medal games are set for Sunday.

Edin beat Canada’s Brad Gushue to win last year’s championship in Las Vegas.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press