ON THE ROCKS: Canadians have been second-half stars in their games so far at world men’s curling championship

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It has become apparent this week that Canada’s Brendan Bottcher is the skip of a second-half team.

Repeatedly, the Bottcher foursome has struggled in the early ends of games and, repeatedly, it has come back with monster performances in the latter ends.

That has translated to a 7-2 record, which is good enough for a tie for second place at the world men’s curling championship in Calgary.

“We’ve been really resilient this week,” Bottcher said Tuesday after a 7-4 win over Italy’s Joel Retornaz at the Markin MacPhail Arena.

“It hasn’t been easy at times. We’ve had ups, we’ve had downs, we’ve been fighting the ice a little bit. There’s a lot that goes into a world championship and this is our first time here and we’re kind of learning as we go a little bit. Just taking all that in and navigating game by game, I think we’ve done a really good job of compartmentalizing the bad stretches that we’ve had and just going out there the next end and trying to play our best again.”

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Canada also earned a hard-fought win over China Tuesday night. Bottcher had to find the button with his last rock in the 10^th end for Canada to pull out a 6-5 win over a China team that looks better than its 2-7 record.

Even in one of Canada’s losses — against South Korea on Monday afternoon — the foursome from Edmonton overcame a five-point deficit in the late ends to come back and take the lead before falling on the final rock of the game.

Bottcher said there’s no particular reason for their early struggles, nor their late brilliance, other than just being in a position where they still are trying to figure things out at a new level.”

“Today, it was a bit of a battle, a bit of a grind, and we had to figure things out more than we usually do,” Bottcher said after the game against Italy (4-5).
“Those are the games that are hard to win. It’s easy to get down on yourself and throw a bunch of bad ends to together and all of a sudden it’s a loss. But we were able to claw back, gain a bit of momentum and come out and play a really good second half.”

Against Italy, Canada was clearly a bit off its game in the early going. Team Bottcher had the hammer in the first end, but blanked, and then gave up a steal in the second when the skip was millimetres light on his last-rock draw.

In the third end, Bottcher was heavy on a draw attempt for two and Canada had to settle for a single point to make the score 1-1.

Italy scored a deuce in the fourth to go up 3-1 and appeared to be in control, but Canada got two in the fifth to tie it and then stole three in the sixth when Retornaz was well light with his last rock.

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From then on, it was all Canada.

“We’re all gonna miss out there and you have to accept that going in,” Bottcher said. “I missed one, I threw it heavy and I knew when I let it go I was heavy. There’s nothing you want more, when you miss a shot, than to have a similar shot in the next end and you can gain that feel back, just so you’ve got the confidence moving forward. I was really happy with my draw in the fifth cause that kind of set the momentum for us for the rest of the game.

“We came out and all four guys played an excellent second half.”

They carried that into the evening draw against China, where they trailed only once — by a 2-1 score through three ends — but were generally in control, even though Bottcher needed to make a tough shot with his last rock in the 10^th to secure the win.

THE BATTLE INTENSIFIES

Bottcher, third Darren Moulding, second Brad Thiessen and lead Karrick Martin are in the throes of a major battle for playoff spots and Olympic berths right now.

Only the top six out of 14 teams will earn both a spot in the weekend playoffs and direct entry for their countries into the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

“I think after Monday night, the tough game against Korea, we know every game matters,” Thiessen said. “We knew coming in that (Tuesday’s) games were big. We just have to keep battling it out.”

Right now there are eight teams remaining in contention for both prizes. Norway’s surprising Steffen Walstad is leading the way at 7-1, while Canada is tied with Sweden (Niklas Edin), Scotland (Bruce Mouat) and the Russia Federation (Sergey Glukhov) at 7-2. Not far back are Olympic champion John Shuster of the United States (5-3) and Olympic bronze medallist Peter de Cruz of Switzerland (5-4).

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“I think this may be one of the strongest men’s fields that’s been seen in a long time,” Mouat said. “I’m really impressed with the standard of play from all the teams, so far, that we’ve played. We’re in a good spot but we’ve got a really tough finish to the competition so we’re gonna have to really try and focus and get a few more wins.”

Canada was on the ice again Tuesday night against China (2-6) and its remaining game going forward are against the Russian Federation, two-time defending champion Sweden, first-place Norway and Germany (2-6).

“We knew there wouldn’t be any free spaces on the bingo card but I definitely was a little surprised at how good even the few bottom teams are here,” Thiessen said. “If you’re not playing you’re A-game, they can come out and beat you. Every game here, we have to be playing our best.”

NORWEGIANS CRUISING

Torger Nergaard, who plays third for Norway, picked up his 100th world championship win on Tuesday when his team beat Switzerland 10-5.

Nergaard is playing in his 13th world championship, though it’s his first with Walstad as skip. Most of his games have been played with Thomas Ulsrud and he has won an Olympic gold medal (2002) and a world championship (2014).

“It doesn’t mean much,” the humble Nergaard said. “It’s just a number. It’s good to have 100 wins and, hopefully, tomorrow we can reach 101 wins, or 102.”

Nergaard is 46 and has been playing in world championships since 1998, while Walstad is just 32 and is more of an up-and-comer.

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The Norweigan skip is playing in his fourth world men’s championship and his biggest claim to fame as a skip so far is a gold medal at the world mixed championship in 2015. He also won a world university title in 2015.

But his team entered this event ranked 57th in the world, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see them right at the top of the table.

“We looked at the schedule and we thought by (Monday) we should be at least at 6-1 to stand a chance at qualifying for the playoffs,” Walstad said. “We have all the top teams on our schedule at the end of the week. I’m happy to be where we’re at. It’s the best we could hope for but it’s going to be tougher now.”

ROCKS TO BE ‘RUBBED’

The World Curling Federation informed all of the curlers that the rocks being used in the men’s world championship would be treated with sandpaper on Tuesday night.

There was some controversy at the recent Tim Hortons Brier in the Calgary bubble, when the rocks were treated but not all of the curlers were informed.

The WCF has a policy that all players must be informed, and it seems the curlers are welcoming the move.

“Personally, I’m quite excited to see the rocks being rubbed,” Mouat said. “Our release is a little bit more positive than most teams so we have taken a lot less ice. I’m quite excited to see what the stones are gonna be doing (Wednesday).

“It’s nothing new to us. We’ve been in plenty of competitions where they’ve rubbed the rocks halfway through the week. Whoever jumps on top of it quick enough is probably gonna win the game.”

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Each team will get nine minutes of practice before playing its first game on Wednesday and that will be a key time in terms of adjusting to the treated rocks.

“You’ve got those nine minutes and you might as well use them for matching your rocks and trying to figure out the ice a bit,” Mouat said. “I’m sure we’ll try to focus really hard on that practice tomorrow, when we know that the rocks have been rubbed.”

Twyman@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman

WORLD MEN’S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

At Markin MacPhail Arena, Calgary, April 2-11

STANDINGS

Norway (Steffen Walstad) 7-1

Sweden (Niklas Edin) 7-2

Russian Federation (Sergey Glukhov) 7-2

Canada (Brendan Bottcher) 7-2

Scotland (Bruce Mouat) 7-2

United States (John Shuster) 5-3

Switzerland (Peter de Cruz) 5-4

Italy (Joel Retornaz) 4-5

Japan (Yuta Mastsumura) 2-6

Denmark (Mads Noergaard) 2-6

Germany (Sixten Totzek) 2-6

South Korea (Yeong Seok Jeong) 2-7

China (Qiang Zou) 2-7

Netherlands (Jaap van Dorp) 1-7

TUESDAY RESULTS

DRAW 13

Sweden 10, Netherlands 4

Norway 10, Japan 2

RCF 11, United States 8

Chin 8, South Korea 5

DRAW 14

Canada 7, Italy 4

Germany 8, Denmark 6

Scotland 6, Japan 3

Norway 10, Switzerland 5

DRAW 15

Canada 6, China 5

RCF 8, Italy 7

Scotland 7, Switzerland 4

Sweden 10, South Korea 2