CurlingZone: Canada's Team Dunstone to play Italy in playoffs at 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship

OGDEN, Utah -- Team Matt Dunstone's road map is now clear and defined. Three wins will get Dunstone's Winnipeg team to the promised land known as the top of the medal podium at the 2026 LGT World Men's Curling Championship. Photo: World Curling / Stephen Fisher

The playoff journey begins Friday at 11 a.m. (all times Eastern) when Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton take on sixth-place Italy's Team Stefano Spiller (8-4) in the playoff qualification round at the Weber County Ice Sheet.

Team Canada (10-2) will take an eight-game win streak and a third-place ranking into the playoffs after completing round-robin play Thursday night with a grinding 7-5 extra-end victory over Norway's Team Andreas Haarstad (0-11).

"That's exactly what we said after we dropped two on Saturday and Sunday, which feels like seven weeks ago -- let's go 10-and-2," said Dunstone. "And we did exactly that. Unfortunately, it didn't work out to get the bye of the semi, but we've won eight in a row. Obviously, we're doing a lot of things well. It's tough going out and playing a game that didn't have much to do with the standings. But it was a nice little leg stretcher to get ready and we're going to turn it up a notch tomorrow."

While Canada takes Italy, the other playoff qualification round game will feature fourth-place Switzerland's Team Marcus Hoesli (9-3) against fifth-place Team John Shuster (8-4) of the United States, a rematch of a Thursday night game that saw Switzerland prevail 9-5 to earn last-rock advantage for Friday's playoff.

The winners of the qualifying-round games will advance to the semifinals, with the Canada-Italy winner playing second-place Team Ross Whyte of Scotland (10-2), while the Switzerland-United States winner plays first-place Team Niklas Edin of Sweden (10-2).

Canada, Scotland and Sweden all finished with 10-2 records, and head-to-head results couldn't resolve the tie, so the Draw Shot Challenge standings determined who finished first, second and third.

The semifinal winners will play for gold on Saturday at 4 p.m., with the semifinal losers battling for bronze on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Canada defeated Italy 9-2 in its second round-robin game on the opening day of the 2026 LGT World Men's Championship.

"We're going to have to be good," said Dunstone. "(Third) Amos (Mosaner) and (second) Sebastiano (Arman) have been here, been there, done that. But that's a team we feel comfortable playing. We're just going to have to try and grab a multiple (score) early and manage the scoreboard from there."

Canada will be seeking its first World Men's Championship gold medal since 2017, when Walker threw lead stones for Brad Gushue's Canadian team.

Walker drew into the lineup Thursday night for the first time in Ogden, replacing Ryan Harnden at lead for the full game.

Like the rest of the world, Team Canada players heard the news of Vic Rauter announcing his retirement after Saturday's gold-medal game, and, suffice it to say, they'd love to be part of his final call on TSN.

"Yeah, without question," said Dunstone. "I mean, Vic's obviously an icon in Canadian curling. You know, he's been on the call for some very special moments of (my career) and obviously he means a lot to me. So it would be a great way to finish it off with a gold medal on Vic's last call."

In the other games, Scotland wrapped up second place with an 8-2 win over Czechia's Team Lukas Klima (3-9), and China's Team Xiaoming Xu (6-6) shaded Poland's Team Konrad Stych (2-10) 6-5.

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