Pinpoint accuracy from Bruce Mouat secured a difficult double takeout to earn Scotland a three at the ninth end, persuading play-off rivals Norway to accept defeat in a vital clash as both teams home in on play-off spots at the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship in Ottawa.
Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had held the upper hand throughout after one of the few errors by either team in the opening half of the match, had seen Norwegian skip Magnus Ramsfjell miss a takeout attempt at the second end, allowing his Scottish counterpart to draw for a three.
They managed to stay in front throughout, but after the Norwegians scored their two at the eighth end the match was still in the balance with Scotland just 6-5 ahead before that chance to wrap things up was taken at the penultimate end. 
On the back of their excellent play on the previous day when relatively rare counts of five had proved decisive in their meetings with both Japan and Korea, the win moved Scotland into a share of third spot in the standings ahead of their overnight (UK time) meeting with the hosts.
“That was an important win for the play-off run,” said Mouat.
“Norway have been playing really well this week, but we managed to get off to a good start with the three at the second end and managed to just about hold that in what was a really good game.”
With three games remaining, having lost just two matches and won seven, the Scots know that if they can keep winning they could claim one of the top two spots at the end of the round-robin which would enhance their medal chances by taking them straight into the semi-finals, avoiding the first play-off round.
“It would be very important to get into the top two spots,” Mouat acknowledged.
“It’s important to have hammer in the play-offs and if you’re one of the top two teams you get hammer in the semi-final, so that’s the ideal goal.”
To that end the meeting with Brad Gushue’s Canadian team was poised to be crucial in what seemed set to be a powerful atmosphere with the venue expected to be sold out for that evening encounter.
“We’re really excited to play Team Canada,” said Mouat.
“I hope the stands are full tonight and we can have a really good battle and really give the fans what they want.”
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BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championships.
Schedule and Results:
Saturday 1 April
Session 1
Scotland – Italy 7-4
Sunday 2 April
Session 3
Scotland – Turkiye 8-1
Session 4
Scotland – Sweden 4-7
Monday 3 April
Session 7
Scotland – Germany 8-6
Tuesday 4 April
Session 9
Scotland – USA 10-8
Session 11
Scotland – Switzerland 4-8
Wednesday 5 April
Session 12
Scotland – Japan 9-2
Session 14
Scotland – Korea 9-3
Thursday 6 April
Session 16
Scotland – Norway 9-5
Session 17 00.00
Scotland – Canada
Friday 7 April
Session 19 19.00
Scotland – Czech Republic
Session 20 00.00
Scotland – New Zealand
Saturday 8 April
Qualification Games 14.00
Semi Finals 00.00
Sunday 9 April
Bronze medal game 16.00
Gold medal game 21.00
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Michael Goodfellow (Team Coach)
Ross Paterson (Coach)
Nigel Holl (Team Leader)
Image: WCF/Celine Stucki
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