Canada gets by Germany to remain unbeaten at Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Championship

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Kevin Koe and Team Canada scored three in the sixth end and went on to a 7-4 win over Marc Muskatewitz of Germany (1-5) Tuesday to remain unbeaten at 6-0 at the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship, presented by Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning and Plumbing. Peter de Cruz of Switzerland (6-0) kept pace with the Canadians, cracking a huge four-ender in the ninth to beat John Shuster of the United States (4-2) 7-4. “We’re feeling good and we’re where we want to be and I think we’ll continue to get better, which I always feel is the key to these events,” Koe said after the victory. Koe, third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Flasch, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Ted Appelman, team coach John Dunn and national coach Jeff Stoughton stole two in the third when Muskatewitz rubbed a guard with his takeout attempt. They then scored three in the sixth to take control of the game. Muskatewitz, third (and former Canadian junior men’s champ) Ryan Sherrard, second Daniel Neuner, lead Benjamin Kapp, alternate Dominik Greindl, and coach Andy Kapp, scored a deuce in seven to keep things interesting into the final end. Canada’s challenge gets a little tougher now with four of its next six games against likely playoff-bound teams, including Olympic champion Shuster, defending world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden and de Cruz. “I’m looking forward to the challenge, I love playing the favourites on a big stage,” said Koe, a three-time world champion. “They’ll be tough but as I said, we’re playing well.” de Cruz got his big end when Shuster couldn’t freeze to a Swiss stone in the four-foot with his last rock and Benoît Schwarz, throwing fourth stones for de Cruz, kicked out the American stone for the four. It was a tight battle between the two serious contenders until that point. Shuster and de Cruz traded deuces in the first two ends, singles in the sixth and seventh and the Americans stole one in eight after burying their counter early and preventing the Swiss from getting at it. Sergey Glukhov of Russia (2-4) scored three in the eighth to beat Qiang Zou of China (1-5) 7-1, and Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway (1-5) got his first win, 9-4 over Jaap van Dorp of the Netherlands (2-4). The 2019 Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship continues with Tuesday night’s draw at 7 p.m. MT. Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2019 Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship are available at wmcc2019.worldcurling.org/ TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2019 Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. For ticket information for the 2019 Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2019worldmen/tickets/ This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2019worldmen/?lang=fr