Charging ahead!

Canada keeps first-place hopes alive with win against China at BKT World Men’s Curling Championship

Getting to the top is hard, but staying there is harder. However, Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs was up to the task at the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, with a win against another late-event podium contender.

Canada improved to 8-1 on Thursday morning after its 8-2 win in seven ends against China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (6-3) at the Temple Gardens Centre. The victory creates more separation in the standings between first-place Canada and a Chinese team that has been nipping at the heels of the Canadians all week long.

It is the third game in a row the Canadians have won that didn’t reach a regulation 10 ends. 

“Once again, I think we came up with really good energy this morning, which is a little bit of a tough thing to do this late in the week, but every time I think we can spare a few ends — and the last few games, 8-3, 8-3, 8-2 — it saves our bodies, saves our minds a little bit,” said Jacobs.

China, which earned its spot at the world championship by winning gold at the 2024 Pan Continental Championships earlier this season in Lacombe, Alta., faced its most challenging test of the week against the Canadian team from Calgary’s Glencoe Club. 

Jacobs, vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Tyler Tardi, team coach Paul Webster and national coach Jeff Stoughton started with hammer and put it to good use in the first end with a hit for two. Once they had hammer back in the third, they scored another deuce with a draw. In the fifth, Canada earned a single.

Meanwhile, Canada forced China into difficult shots and kept its opposition to single points throughout the first half.

Canada’s control of the game wasn’t just evident on the scoreboard and the stats sheet. The Canadians have an outstanding force efficiency percentage of 88 per cent through nine games; the closest team is the Czech Republic at 77 per cent.

“We’re good at defending. I think our stats really show how good we are at defending,” said Jacobs. “We’re comfortable when we’re up, I mean every team is, but we’ve got some good systems and game plans in place that allow us to defend well. We’re not afraid to mix it up sometimes, we’re not afraid to make tough chases around guards, and sometimes your best defence is still a little bit of offence. We’re getting more comfortable with leaving rocks out front and playing in the rings, and playing some of the more delicate, soft-touch shots, trying to lay a few on their last and get the force.”

Team Jacobs was rewarded in the sixth end with this style of play. Looking to force China to a single, Team Xu overcurled on its last rock hit and rolled too far away, gifting the Canadians a steal of two and extending its lead to five points. Canada stole a single point in the seventh end similarly, leading to China’s concession.

“He’s brimming with confidence. I think that a confident skip is a pretty dangerous skip,” Gallant said. “He’s got all the shots, his weights are great, his lines are great and he’s calling a good game, too. It’s a lot of fun to be on the team when the skip is feeling that good.”

While Canada has earned some breathing room from China, Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (7-2) remains within a game of first place and will get its chance to close the gap against Canada later Thursday at 7 p.m. (all times Central Standard).

Both teams have been the class of the field so far, with Switzerland shooting a collective 89.3 per cent following its most recent win Thursday morning, an 8-3 six-end trouncing of Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz (3-6). Only Canada’s 91.1 team percentage is better than Switzerland’s product on the ice.

In other action, Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell (5-4) doubled South Korea’s Team Hyojun Kim (0-9), which made a lineup change and put vice-skip Eunbin Kim in at skip, and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin (6-3) earned a 10-4 win in six ends over Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat (6-3) to tie the teams in the standings.

Round-robin play runs through to Friday, 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 Saturday at 3 p.m., while third will play sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games earlier on Saturday, at 9 a.m.

The winners of the qualifying-round games will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will play for gold on Sunday at 3 p.m., with the semifinal losers battling for bronze Sunday at 9 a.m.

The 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship continues with draws Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2025worldmen/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2025worldmen/nouvelles/?lang=fr.