Canada remains undefeated at curling worlds after beating Scotland, Japan

Canada's skip Kevin Koe competes in a round robin match between Scotland and Canada at the men's curling World Championships in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, Monday, April 4, 2016. (Georgios Kefalas / Keystone via AP)

BASEL, Switzerland -- After a frustrating opening weekend, Canada has found its groove at the men's world curling championship.

Kevin Koe's Calgary rink improved to 5-0 with a pair of convincing wins Monday, a 5-3 victory over Scotland and a 9-2 rout of Japan.

The two comfortable performances at St. Jakobshalle arena should do wonders for Canada's confidence after a pair of shaky extra-end wins on Sunday, especially with an early match coming against Germany on Tuesday morning.

"Obviously we played well tonight," said team coach John Dunn. "And we're in the middle of this three-games-in-a-row stretch right now, so any time you get the opportunity to shake hands early and get to bed early, and with our first morning game tomorrow, the timing of this is pretty good."

Canada's win over Japan, coupled with the United States' surprising 8-3 rout of defending champ Sweden, left Koe's rink alone atop the round-robin standings after eight draws.

Norway and Sweden were tied for second at 4-1, with Denmark, the U.S., and Japan in fourth at 3-2.

Canada did most of its damage against Japan through steals. After being forced to a single to open the scoring in the second end, Canada ramped up the pressure in the third. Koe made a perfect draw that forced Japan skip Yusuke Morozumi to attempt a double raise takeout. He overcurled the attempt, leaving Canada with a steal of two.

It got worse in the fourth end when Canada simply kept piling red rocks into the rings, leaving Morozumi looking at six of them with his final-rock draw attempt. He came up well light, allowing Canada to steal five.

Canada would steal another in the fifth end, and the teams shook hands after Japan salvaged a sixth-end deuce thanks to a double-takeout from Morozumi.

"That feels nice to get a bit of an easier win," Koe said. "They made some good shots early to keep them in it. It looked like we were going to get 'em for three in the second (before Morozumi bailed out his team). But we didn't get frustrated, we kept the heat on them and eventually he missed a couple big ones."

The score was closer against Scotland, though the win was still less frenetic than Sunday's 11th-end nail-biters against Denmark and the U.S.

Canada, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing lead Ben Hebert and alternate Scott Pfeifer, closed off the match with two points in the ninth after the teams battled through three blank ends.

It was the 100th meeting between Canada and Scotland at the men's world championship. Canada has now won 12 straight against its old rival and holds an 80-20 advantage in the all-time series.

Canada is looking to end a four-year championship drought. Glenn Howard won Canada's last title in 2012 at St. Jakobshalle.