MOOSE JAW -- Before Team Canada took the ice in Draw 19 against Austria at the World Men’s Curling Championship, lead Ben Hebert had a message for alternate Tyler Tardi.
Be ready.
If things worked out like expected, the hard-sweeping regular Canada lead was going to look to take a few ends off and save energy for the big match-up with the United States on Friday evening. And that meant Tardi would be taking his place.
So when the Brad Jacobs foursome had built themselves a 4-1 lead heading into the fifth end, it was time for the Tardi Party to hit Temple Gardens Centre.
The two-time former World Junior champion came firing right out of the gates, too, tossing two perfect draws into the house to start off his first-ever World Men’s appearance at 100 per cent.
“It was great,” Tardi said during the post-game media scrum. “There were a bit of jitters, to be completely honest. It's been a while since I've thrown, I fired out of the hack and Marc (Kennedy) told me to drop the anchor. His caddying helped me out there. After the first throw, it was smooth sailing.”
It was also all but academic the rest of the way, and Brad Jacobs and crew would go on to an 8-2 victory to see their record improve to 10-1 with one game remaining in the round robin.
The good news is that final game against the United States will have no impact on Canada’s playoff fate, as Jacobs, third Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Hebert have now locked down first place and a spot in the semifinal Saturday.
“It’s big. We could use another morning off, another sleep in,” Jacobs said. “A couple days ago Big Daddy (Gallant) said he really wants the morning off on Saturday if we could do it and we did. We’ve all been curling a lot and I also think it’s big that we’ve finished these last few games in fewer than 10 ends. We’ve saved our bodies quite well.”
While you never want to call a game a foregone conclusion in the sport, there was a dip in intensity compared to the first-place showdown between Canada and Switzerland the night before -- a contest where Canada curled 97 per cent and posted a dominant win.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a little tough out there going up against Austria,” Jacobs said. “We know they’ve had a rough week and are at the bottom of the standings and we should win that game. Still, you have to come out and perform.
“I struggled personally early on in that game because we came off of a huge game last night and that was just exciting, lots of emotion and intense, and this was just lower energy. So we did the best that we could and luckily we got a lead and were able to hold on to it.”
The win means Canada will automatically have hammer in their semifinal contest as well as the first selection of rocks, both of which will naturally give them an advantage.
“We’ve locked up a lot of good stuff as well as first place, so we’re really pleased,” Jacobs said.
The other games on the ice in Draw 19 finalized which teams will be in the playoffs.
With Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller taking a 6-5 win over Czechia’s Lukas Klima, the top six have been settled, with only the final placings and quarter-final positions to be decided.
Here is how things look heading into the final round robin draw on Friday evening.
Q - Canada (Jacobs) 10-1
Q - Scotland (Mouat) 8-3
Q- Switzerland (Schwaller) 8-3
Q - China (Xu) 7-4
Q - Norway (Ramsfjell) 7-4
Q - Sweden (Edin) 7-4
Czechia (Klima) 6-6
Japan (Yamaguchi) 5-7
Italy (Retornaz) 5-7
Germany (Muskatewtiz) 5-7
United States (Dropkin) 4-7
Korea (Kim) 1-10
Austria (Genner) 1-11
Other results Friday afternoon saw Germany take a 9-4 win over the United States and Japan continue their impressive tournament second half with a 9-7 win over Italy.
The final round robin session will see a handful of big games when it comes to playoff positioning, as Scotland faces China, Norway takes on Sweden and Switzerland battles Korea.
And, of course, one of the most hotly anticpated games of the tournament -- Canada versus the United States, with the venue having been sold out since early in the week.
You can follow along with all the happenings from that contest on SportsCage.com’s live blog, as keep up to date with the playoff bracket on www.worldcurling.org.
