Canada’s Team Dunstone pulls off thrilling win at LGT World Men’s Curling Championship

OGDEN, Utah — Nearly three hours of curling came down to 25 nail-biting, scary, hold-your-breath seconds for Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone Wednesday morning at the 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship.

After eight ends of thoroughly dominating Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli at the Weber County Ice Sheet, Dunstone’s Winnipeg team faltered in the ninth end, giving up a game-tying three-ender.

Then, in the 10th, Dunstone was left only with an outturn draw to bite a big piece of the button to avoid a shattering defeat.

His stone looked immediately heavy; Dunstone’s sweepers Ryan Harnden and E.J. Harnden did not put their broom on the ice for the rock’s full journey, and had backed off from it when it crossed the hog-line.

But, finally, and to the relief of Canadian curling fans everywhere, the rock started grinding inward, and took a sharp left turn at the last possible second for the 8-7 victory.

“Didn’t love the looks of it, didn’t love the feel of it,” said a relieved, but smiling, Dunstone afterward. “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.”

With the win, Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton improved their record to 7-2, tied for first place in the 13-team round-robin standings with the Swiss, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin.

“I mean, that was a game we dominated from pillar to post,” said Dunstone. “Just a bad throw on mine in the ninth kept them back in it. So, ultimately, it was a win that we deserved — it was just a little too close for comfort.”

Canada is still firmly in the mix for a top-two placing that guarantees a bye to the semifinals, but likely needs to win its final three round-robin games to secure it.

But that scenario would have been moot with a loss on Wednesday.

Canada held a well-deserved 7-4 lead through eight ends, but when Dunstone missed his last shot in the ninth, it gave the Swiss the chance to make an open hit to tie the game, and also marked the first time Canada has had to play a full 10th end in this event.

“Tied up with (hammer in the 10th end) against any team in this event, you’re going to take that and run every day of the week,” said Dunstone. “It wasn’t the situation we thought we were going to be in, but that’s what was presented to us and we managed to capitalize.”

Not without some nerves, though, and Lott’s thought process as he watched the last stone come toward him was pretty basic.

“I could see it wanting to grind and start digging in,” said Lott. “Then just at the end, I was like, ‘Ohhh, stop, stop, stop!’ It’s a big relief in the fact that we controlled most of that game and just kind of lost it a little bit in the end, but we stuck through it and Matty came out clutch in the end for us.”

It had been textbook curling over the first eight ends, with Canada getting deuces in the first and sixth ends, and adding a stolen point in the second, and rarely giving Switzerland opportunities for big ends — until, of course, the ninth end that set the stage for the 10th-end drama.

The stretch run is officially underway for Canada, which returns to action later Wednesday, at 9 p.m. (all times Eastern) against Czechia’s Team Lukas Klima (3-6). Team Dunstone closes out the round robin with games Thursday at 4 p.m. against Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz (4-5) and at 9 p.m. against Norway’s Team Andreas Haarstad (0-8).

Team Dunstone will carry a five-game win streak into the game against the Czechs.

“We would have taken this after Saturday and Sunday (losses on both days) for sure,” said Dunstone. “I know we’re on a little bit of a run now, but we have three tough games left; we have to keep the pedal down and keep on going. 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.”

In other games, Scotland was a 9-3 winner over China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (3-6); Team John Shuster of the United States (6-3) beat Poland’s Team Konrad Stych (2-7) 8-3; and Czechia shaded Japan’s Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (3-6) 7-6 in an extra end.

Sweden, Germany, Norway, Italy’s Team Stefano Spiller (6-3), and South Korea’s Team Changmin Kim (2-6) all had byes on Wednesday morning.

Round-robin play runs through to Thursday, with the top six teams making the playoffs; no tiebreakers will be played, so ties for playoff spots will be broken based on head-to-head results, and if that doesn’t resolve the tie, then the pre-game Last-Shot Draw distances.

The top two teams from round-robin play will be seeded directly into the semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m., while third will play sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games at 11 a.m. on Friday.

The winners of the qualifying-round games will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will play for gold on Saturday at 4 p.m., with the semifinal losers battling for bronze on Saturday at 11 a.m.

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/.