Canada will play for bronze at World Juniors

Canada will play Sweden for the bronze medal after losing the semifinal 11-8 to Russia’s Evgeny Arkhipov in an extra end at the World Junior Curling Championships in Sochi, Russia today. Dunstone and his Winnipeg team – third Colton Lott, second Daniel Grant, lead Brendan MacCuish, alternate Josh Barry and coach Scott Grant – lost Friday’s Page 1-2 game to Scotland’s Kyle Smith, their second extra-end loss to last year’s bronze medallists. They needed to defeat Russia in order to get the rematch, but Arkhipov put that out of reach. Right from the start, both skips were focused on offence. Dunstone made a tricky double to score two in the first end, and the teams continued to trade deuces through the next four ends. The game was full of great shot-making. In the fifth, Canadian second Daniel Grant and third Colton Lott made the same difficult hit through a port to put the pressure on, but Russian third Sergey Glukhov answered with a perfect freeze. Dunstone had to find full four foot to score his deuce and take a 6-4 lead into the break. Tied 7-7 after eight ends, Dunstone gave up a steal of one in the ninth when his last rock take-out attempt flashed by a Russian counter. The Russians poured it on in the 10th and Canada was only able to score one, forcing the extra end. Arkhipov went on the offensive right away, forcing misses out of the Canadians as they tried to set up for the steal. Dunstone made a hit and roll behind cover on his last, but Arkhipov just skimmed by a guard to make the take out and earn his spot in the final. “I couldn’t be more proud of the guys,” said Dunstone after the game. “We’ve come a long way in the past year and to get third or maybe fourth in the whole world is an amazing thing. Hats off to the Russians. They played amazing again. They’re going to kill it in the final tomorrow, but we’ve got to go out and win that bronze now. We’re very proud to be Canadian.” Canada will now play Sweden for the bronze medal on Sunday at 9 a.m. local time (midnight Saturday EST). Fans can access video highlights and live coverage of games on the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel found here: www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV The live coverage schedule is available along with news, live scores and galleries on the event website: https://wjcc2013.curlingevents.com For team line-ups visit: https://www.wjcc2013.curlingevents.com/teams