The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 03, 2026 2:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Canada's Matt Dunstone will be playing for a gold medal on Saturday at the world men's curling championship in Ogden, Utah.

The Winnipeg-based team defeated Scotland 9-7 in a thrilling semifinal Friday evening, scoring a deuce in the ninth to go ahead 8-7 and then stealing one in the 10th to beat Ross Whyte's squad.

The teams were tied 3-3 after five ends, Scotland went up 5-3 in the sixth and Canada scored three in the seventh to take a 6-5 lead. Scotland responded with a deuce in the eighth to go ahead 7-6.

Earlier in the day, Canada defeated Italy's Stefano Spiller 9-7 in a qualification game.

Dunstone, who was down one point but had hammer in the 10th end, made a double-takeout to score three points for the victory.

Sporting an ear-to-ear grin after punching his ticket to the championship final, Dunstone joked: "I'm really happy we get to sleep in on Saturday morning. And obviously play in the final, too."

Dunstone, third Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, will face Niklas Edin's team from Sweden, who beat the host United States 8-6 in an extra end in Friday's other semifinal.

Sweden, Scotland and Canada all finished the round robin portion of the 13-team championship with 10-2 record, but Canada placed third on a draw tiebreaker, forcing Dunstone to play Friday morning's qualifying game against Italy, which qualified for the playoffs with an 8-4 record.

Scotland and the U.S. will play for bronze Saturday morning.