Scotland’s Team Mouat came out on the wrong side of a top quality clash with Sweden’s Team Edin on the second day of the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship, but could draw satisfaction with the way they made the six time winners fight to the end of their encounter in Ottawa.
It was fiercely competitive even before the first stone was thrown at the first end, with both performing better in the pre-match draw shot challenge than any other teams on the ice in the fourth round of matches, but Sweden narrowly won that, earning them the important advantage of throwing last stone at the opening end.
They made that count as, after blanking that first end, they scored a two at the second and with all four team members performing at around 90 per cent efficiency throughout the match, they maintained that advantage through four ends. 
They looked to be pressing home their advantage over Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan when skip Niklas Edin drew to the edge of the button to leave Mouat facing the prospect of losing a three at the fifth end.
However, Mouat then found a response which left the television commentators struggling to describe it as his stunning round the horn shot removed two Swedish stones and nudged a third sufficiently as it rebounded back up the rink to register a two which levelled the match.
High class play from the Scots resulted in a blanked sixth end, then a force at the seventh and they looked to be setting up a two at the eighth which would have swung the momentum their way, until a couple of half shots by Hardie and Mouat allowed Edin to play a double takeout which gave his opposite number no choice but to make the takeout and level the scores once again.
When Mouat then failed narrowly to pull off another round the horn attempt at the ninth end with his final delivery, Edin was able to draw for a three and he wrapped things up with a high class double takeout with his first stone at the final end that killed off any chance of the Scots taking the match to an extra end.
“It was a good game,” said Mouat.
“We had a bit of a slower start, but we got there and managed to level it up in the fifth end.
”That shot we played to get the two there was quite nice. 
“It looked like it was going to be close to being on and it turned out it was, so it was nice to make a shot like that at a World Championships, that’s pretty special.
“We were very close to making it at the ninth as well, so it’s tough one, but we’re still going and it’s a long week, so we’ll rebound tomorrow against Germany.”
The defeat was Scotland’s first of the event, an opening day defeat of Italy having been followed by a comprehensive 8-1 victory over Turkiye earlier in day two and as he looked ahead to that solitary match on day three against the Germans, Mouat said he was pleased with the way his reigning European champions have settled into the competition, even managing to get their fifth player, Kyle Waddell, involved at an early stage.
“The ice has been great,” said Mouat.
“We’re really enjoying it and we had a really good performance against Turkiye this morning and it was nice to get Kyle on the ice to give him a bit of time out there.
“Germany will be a tough game tomorrow. We’ve played them a a lot this season and it’s always gone down to the last few stones, so we’ll need to play well to beat them because they always give us a good run.”
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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 – 19.00
Scotland – Germany
Tuesday 4 April
Session 9 – 14.00
Scotland – USA
Session 11 – 00.00
Scotland – Switzerland
Wednesday 5 April
Session 12 14.00
Scotland – Japan
Session 14 00.00
Scotland – Korea
Thursday 6 April
Session 16 19.00
Scotland – Norway
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)
Images: WCF/Celine Stucki
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