Canada’s Team Dunstone extends win streak at 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship

OGDEN, Utah — It’s mid-week at the 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship, and while Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone knew before its arrival that a 12-game round-robin schedule would be tough, actually experiencing it has driven that point home.

So it was no surprise that as that team began the second half of its slate of games Tuesday morning at the Weber County Ice Sheet, the rigours of the schedule would be starting to have an effect.

But, as it normally does, the Winnipeg team found a way to fight through the mental and physical fatigue and win an important game, 8-4 over China’s Team Xiaoming Xu.

The win wasn’t nailed down until the ninth end when Dunstone made a superb come-around tap to remove a partially buried Chinese stone and score four, breaking a 4-4 tie and prompting handshakes.

“We built a big end late and capitalized,” said Dunstone, whose team is rounded out by vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton. “You know, the focus all week has been just trying to be the best team for 10 straight ends. And that paid off, obviously, today.”

Only E.J. Harnden has endured playing a 12-game round robin, as a member of Team Brad Gushue in recent years, so it’s been an eye-opener for World Men’s Championship rookies Dunstone and Lott.

“The schedule,” said a chuckling Dunstone when asked about what has been the biggest World Championship eye opener. “I mean, you looked at it for two straight weeks, but then actually living it, it’s like, oh, my goodness. You know, it’s been an awesome, Ogden’s been a fantastic host. The city’s beautiful, the arena’s been great, the crowd’s been really good. I mean, nothing but good things. Just the schedule — it’s hit me a little bit at this point in the week.”

The good news is that the home stretch is underway, and Canada is on a three-game win streak, and while Tuesday’s win wasn’t a work of art, the Montana’s Brier champs were effective when they needed to be.

“We’ve been doing a really good job of just staying patient, just staying within ourselves,” said E.J. Harnden. “If we’re missing a shot or have a bit of an off end, I think we’re bouncing back really well, keeping engaged, supporting one another. And it’s paying off. This is a long week. It’s going to be tough every single game. We’re going to have to fight every single end and then hopefully we’ll continue to break it open late. If that’s the story of the week, we’ll take that.”

Canada got an early break when China’s last-rock thrower Xueqing Fei (who’s also skipping in place of the injured Xu) nose-hit on his first-end blank attempt, and Canada replied immediately with a second-end deuce set up by E.J. Harnden drawing buried behind a pair of corner guards. Canada padded its lead in the third on a steal when Fei couldn’t dig out a buried Canadian stone in the four-foot.

But China tied it in the fourth after Dunstone wrecked on a guard on his tap attempt to sit two; Fei made the open hit to tie the game.

The teams then traded singles the next two ends, and Canada blanked the seventh and eighth ends, setting the stage for the ninth-end game-winner from Dunstone.

“You have to pace yourself and you have to give yourself a little bit of grace here and there,” said E.J. Harnden. “You just try to conserve energy and make sure, again, at the end of the day, whether you’re taking every game to last rock or you’re taking it to the ninth and then scoring four, a win’s a win. Every single win that we can stack up here is important. And hopefully we can continue to do that later tonight.”

That night game, at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, will be against Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin (7-0); Edin holds a record seven World Men’s titles.

“Super excited to play the World Championship GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) tonight,” said Dunstone. “We’re going to have to have our best game of the week. We know that. We’re excited for it. (They’re a) team we see a lot on tour, so there’s going to be no surprises. It would feel great to bring this one home and really set the tone for the rest of the round robin, without question.”

In other Tuesday morning games, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte (5-2) turned back South Korea’s Team Changmin Kim (2-6) 7-2; Team John Shuster of the United States (4-3) defeated Czechia’s Team Lukas Klima (2-5) 8-5; and Poland’s Team Konrad Stych (2-5) was an 8-5 winner over Norway’s Team Andreas Haarstad (0-7).

Sweden, Switzerland’s Team Marcus Hoesli (6-1), Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz (4-3), Italy’s Team Stefano Spiller (4-3), and Japan’s Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (2-5) all had byes on Tuesday morning.

TSN/RDS2, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide live coverage of Canada’s round-robin games, in addition to all playoff games. CLICK HERE for their complete broadcast schedule.

The list of teams, schedule information, and live scoring can be found by CLICKING HERE.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/nouvelles-media/.