Scotland’s Team Mouat raised their game when they need to most to come through a meeting of the only teams to have won the title in the past eight years to see off defending champions Sweden 8-7 to reach the semi-finals of the BKT World Men’s Championship in Saskatchewan.
The draw could hardly have come out less favourably for World number one ranked Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, when they found themselves up against their biggest rivals in the first round of the knockout stages, starting without the hammer (last stone advantage) after finishing below the seven time champions in the round-robin standings.
With little to separate the teams historically, Mouat’s men having been the only team to deny Niklas Edin’s team the World title since 2017, while they had won 19 of their 40 previous meetings, it was clear that they would have to do something exceptional to overturn the odds.
That process began at the opening end as they earned the chance for Mouat to draw his final stone in behind cover, forcing Swedish Edin to draw for one and they continued to out-manoeuvre their opponents at the second where Mouat was left with a straightforward takeout with his final stone to move his team into the lead.
The teams exchanged twos at the next two ends, but there was a further momentum shift in the Scots’ favour when Edin made a rare error to score one at the fifth end when he had been looking to clear a Scottish shot while also sending his shooter out of the stones, only to hit it on the nose and stay in the rings. 
While that levelled the scores at 4-4, it meant the Scots had turned last stone advantage around heading into the midway break and they capitalised on the resumption, once again scoring their two.
“It was really important for us to turn the hammer as soon as we could in the game,” said Mouat.
“The second, fourth and sixth end were really good ends from us to create those chances for twos, which gave us the jump.
“We got a wee break in the fifth end when he nosed the peel, so those were the biggest turning points and then our two at the sixth obviously helped.”
Edin was once again forced to draw for one at the seventh end, leaving Scotland 6-5 ahead as they played the eighth end where another two would have all but wrapped up the win.
For much of the end they looked to be setting up that opportunity, but a perfect draw around the button by Edin left Mouat with a challenging run back to remove it and attempt to score two. He duly made contact with the Swedish stone to remove it, but the stone he had promoted to do so also ran out of the rings, making it a score of just one.
Scotland again looked to have the upper hand for much of the ninth end, but Edin’s fighting qualities were to the fore as he drew his first shot into a safe spot behind guards, forcing Mouat to attempt another run back, which again did only half the required job in similar fashion to the previous end.
However, mistake free curling at the final end meant that even though Edin made a fine attempt to take out two Scottish stones around the button with his last stone, one of them stayed in the house, while his shooter ran into the open, allowing Mouat to clear it with the last delivery of the game and secure an 8-7 victory.
“We had our noses in front for most of it and we kept our cool,” said the Scottish skip.
“I’m just really pleased with how we fought really hard in the first half to give ourselves the chance to win the game in the second half.
“We know that they are obviously an extremely strong team and you’re never going to get a free pass past them, but we played one of our best games of the week to get past them, so we’re really proud of how we did that.”
The win earned them another massive challenge with a semi-final meeting with the team representing the host nation that had finished top of the standings after the round-robin stages.
No fewer than three of the four Canadians, 2014 Olympic champion skip Brad Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert, had finished in the all-star team after those round-robin matches, selected on which individual finished with the best statistics in his position, while their second Brett Gallant, had also narrowly missed out. 
As well as their consistency throughout a season that has seen them dominate the world rankings, Scotland could, though, draw upon having been the only team to beat the Canadians in the round-robin stages, which was Mouat’s ninth win in 10 meetings with Jacobs.
“We just need to do the same against Canada now to put ourselves in with a good chance,” said Mouat.
“It needs to be similar to what we just did.
“Niklas is no easy team to get past and Brad’s the same.
“If we play like we did there it’s going to be a really good game and I hope the crowd enjoys it.
“It’s going to be a really good atmosphere in the crowd tonight.
“I think a lot of Canadian fans will obviously be coming to watch Canada and curling fans in general just seem to be really enjoying the atmosphere that’s been created here so far in the games that have been played, so we’re just really happy to be a part of it.”
Scotland’s game against Canada takes place at 10pm (BST) on Saturday 5 April and will be shown live on The Curling Channel and on the BBC iPlayer.
In the other semi-final Switzerland, who finished second in the standings, take on China who edged out Norway 8-7 after an extra end of their quarter-final.
The BKT World Men’s Curling Championship runs from 29 March – 6 April, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.
Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Michael Goodfellow (Team Coach)
Greg Drummond (Olympic Head Coach)
Please click here for draw and results.
Schedule and results:
Day One
Sunday 30 March
Scotland – Austria 12-2
Day Two
Scotland – Japan 9-6
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Korea 9-3
Day Three
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Canada 6-5(EE)
Tuesday 1 April
Scotland – Czechia 8-2
Day Four
Scotland – Italy 9-7
Day Five
Wednesday 2 April
Scotland – Switzerland 7-11
Scotland – Norway 8-4
Day Six
Thursday 3 April
Scotland – Sweden 4-10
Scotland – USA 8-6
Day Seven
Friday 4 April
Scotland – Germany 6-1
Saturday 5 April
Scotland – China 2-9
Day Eight
Saturday 5 April
Qualification games*
Scotland – Sweden 8-7
Norway – China 7-8 (EE)
Semi Final games*-10pm
Scotland - Canada
Switzerland - China
Day Nine
Sunday 6 April
Bronze medal game*-4pm
Gold medal game*-10pm
*Games available on the BBC iPlayer
Images: Anil Mungal/British Curling
