WebPosted Sat, 08 Apr 2006 16:23:47 EDT
CBC Sports
For the second year in a row, Canada and Scotland will play for world men’s curling supremacy.
FROM APRIL 7, 2006: Canada’s Menard makes curling final
Scotland’s skip David Murdoch calls a direction during the world men’s curling championship in Lowell, Mass. Scotland will play Canada in Sunday’s final (CBC, 12:30 p.m., EDT). (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Scotland’s David Murdoch topped Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud 6-4 in the world championship semifinal Saturday in Lowell, Mass., to earn another shot at Canadian skip Jean-Michel Menard.
Menard’s rink out of Quebec City beat Scotland’s David Murdoch 8-2 in a Page playoff game Friday to advance directly to Sunday’s final (CBC, 12:30 p.m. EDT).
“They’re always a force,” Murdoch said of playing Canada. “[They're] the most decorated nation in world curling. You always have to be up for them. They’re the benchmark.”
Scotland is considered the birthplace of curling, but Canada is where the game evolved. Canada has won 29 world men’s titles.
“It’s an old rivalry. It’s been around for a long, long time,” Murdoch said. “We’re obviously playing for our country, but we owe it to ourselves to do this for each other.”
Murdoch’s team lost 11-4 in the 2005 world final to Canada’s Randy Ferbey in Victoria and finished fourth at this year’s Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
Menard is playing in his first world championship final.
Top 2 teams go head to head
Sunday’s final will be a rematch between the round robin’s top two teams – first place Scotland (9-2) and second place Canada (8-3).
In Friday’s playoff game, Canada stole five points in the first three ends against Scotland to take a commanding lead. Menard made a spectacular angle raise in the fifth to score three and lead 8-1 at the midway point of the game.
Scotland, which suffered some misfortune with debris on the ice early in the match, conceded after the sixth end.
“You get days like that and you’ve just got to take it on the chin,” Murdoch said after the game.
Murdoch fell behind early in Saturday’s semifinal, but didn’t let it faze him.
Norway scored two in the third and stole a point in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead. Scotland stole a point in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead into the eighth. Ulsrud blanked the end to take the hammer and try to score multiple points in the ninth end.
But Ulsrud missed a perfect opportunity to score a deuce, but he failed to remove Murdoch’s perfectly placed freeze and had to settle for a single.
With last-rock advantage in the 10th, Murdoch polished off the match with an easy takeout for a deuce and the victory.
with files from Canadian Press
Copyright © CBC 2006
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