Canada’s Dunstone wins sixth straight, qualifies for playoffs at men’s curling worlds

Matt Dunstone, skip of Team Manitoba-Dunstone releases his stone during the 1 vs. 2 playoffs at the Montana's Brier Canadian men's curling championship, in St. John's, N.L., on Saturday, March 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

OGDEN — Canada’s Matt Dunstone secured a playoff spot on a two-win day at the world men’s curling championship on Wednesday.

He edged Switzerland’s Marco Hoesli 8-7 in the morning draw and extended his win streak to six games with a 9-5 victory over Czechia’s Lukas Klima in the evening to improve to 8-2.

The five other playoff teams - Switzerland, Sweden, Scotland, Italy and host United States - also locked up spots before the start of the evening session.

Round-robin play continues through Thursday night.

In the early game, Dunstone’s Winnipeg-based team gave up three points to Hoesli in the ninth end. The Canadian skip made a draw to the button in the 10th for the win.

“Didn’t love the looks of it, didn’t love the feel of it,” he said with a smile. “I knew it was heavy out of my hand, and the sweepers weren’t a big fan of what I gave them either, but fortunately that rock had eyes and I’m thankful it did.”

The top two teams in the round-robin standings will get a bye to the semifinals.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin (9-2) was in first place after a 9-1 rout of Poland. Scotland’s Ross Whyte joined Canada and Switzerland at 8-2 after defeating Norway’s Andreas Haarstad 7-5.

In the evening matchup, the Canadians put the game away with three in the ninth on Dunstone’s open takeout and precise roll.

“We controlled the game,” said Canada lead Ryan Harnden. “(The ice) was quite slow, so we tried to keep it as simple as we could. Get a lead and just kind of lean on them, and that’s exactly what we did.”

China’s Xiaoming Xu topped South Korea’s Changmin Kim 8-4 in the other late game. Italy’s Stefano Spiller and American John Shuster, both 7-3, were idle.

“We have to keep the pedal down and keep on going,” Dunstone said. “That bye would be big, for sure, just given the schedule and not having to go back-to-back games on Friday.

“But we’ll take it one at a time and hopefully give ourselves a chance to lock up first or second tomorrow.”

Medal games are scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2026.

The Canadian Press