Canada's Dunstone wins 8th straight, will face Italy for semifinal spot at men's curling worlds

Canada won its eighth game in a row but couldn't earn a direct berth to the semifinals at the men's curling world championship.

Matt Dunstone's Winnipeg-based team closed out round-robin play with a 7-5 extra-end win over Norway in the evening draw after beating Germany 9-2 earlier Thursday at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah.

Canada improved to 10-2, tied with Sweden and Scotland atop the preliminary-round standings, but finished as the third seed in a tiebreaker.

"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 [to] 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 [Friday]."

Sweden and Scotland earned semifinal spots, while the next four will play in a qualification round.

Dunstone will meet sixth-seeded Italy (8-4) on Friday morning, while Switzerland faces the United States for a spot in the evening's semifinal draw. The bronze- and gold-medal games take place Saturday.

Canada defeated Italy 9-2 in its second round-robin game on the tournament's opening day.

"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."

Scotland rolled past Czechia 8-2 in the evening draw to secure its bye, while the