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Skip Kevin Martin contained a surging Swiss team to secure an 8-6 victory for Canada at the world curling championships in Grand Forks, N.D., on Thursday.

Martin climbed to an early 5-2 lead, but the Swiss replied with three points in the sixth, tying the contest and threatening a considerable upset.

Team Canada skip Kevin Martin looks on as Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and John Morris sweep against Switzerland at the world curling championships on Thursday. Canada won 8-6.
(Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

The Canadian contingent among the 2,016 fans in the stands at 11,600-seat Ralph Engelstad Arena cheered and waved flags as the Canadians picked up a point in each of the last two ends to cement the win.

“You don’t want to lose your edge,” Martin said after his team strengthened its stranglehold on first place with a 9-1 record. “There was a lot of edge out there today for sure. Everybody is pretty into it. It’s good to see.

“Everybody is not accepting the misses very well. It’s good. Everybody is on edge a bit. That’s good. We’re definitely not complacent, that’s for sure.”

The loss dropped Switzerland’s record to 2-8.

Need to get back to ‘A’ game: Morris

Third John Morris said the Canadian squad has plenty of room for improvement.

“We’re bringing a good B game right now,” said the Calgary-area firefighter. “We have to get back to our A game.”

Martin and his rink of Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert seemed to have the game against Switzerland in hand after building a 5-2 lead after four ends. But the Swiss fought back with three in the sixth, putting the pressure on Canada.

“We don’t give up threes very often and gave up a sloppy three [against Switzerland]. We have to pick it up a bit. We should be fine for the playoffs but we have to get back on track a bit.”

While Martin has already clinched first place in the 12-nation round robin, several teams are still duking it out for the last three playoff berths.

Under the Page playoff system, Martin will play the second-place finisher on Friday to decide who gets a bye to Sunday’s final.

Whoever loses that game will head to the semi-final to meet the winner of another playoff game between the third- and fourth-place teams.

Martin said “if nothing weird happens,” he expects Scotland to finish second. Canada beat the Scots 6-5 during the round robin.

CBC Sports is televising the semifinal (Saturday, 2 p.m. ET) and the championship final (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET), and providing daily streaming at CBCSports.ca.

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