Turns out Swiss no gimme for Glenn

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This article was published 04/04/2012 (5243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BASEL, Switzerland — Canada’s Glenn Howard has won in blowout fashion and had a few close calls at the world men’s curling championship.

He has come through every time and remains a favourite to play for his fourth career world title on the weekend.

Howard preserved his unbeaten record Tuesday by winning a 7-6 nailbiter over Switzerland before posting an 8-5 win over Denmark. Both opponents are playoff long shots but still gave Howard a stiff challenge ahead of upcoming games against powerhouse rinks Sweden and Scotland.

The three-time world champion said the quality of opposition is so high at the competition that every game is a real test.

“When other teams play well, you can only do so much,” he said. “Everybody keeps thinking you’re supposed to blow people out. You can’t — if the other team makes a lot of shots, that’s the way it works.

“The bottom line is you just try to make one more than the next guy and get those wins.”

Entering with a 1-4 record, Switzerland’s Benoit Schwarz had nothing to lose against Howard. The 20-year-old vice-skip played like it and came tantalizingly close to an upset.

Fuelled by a vocal contingent of about 1,000 local supporters at St. Jakobshalle, the host team forced an extra end before Howard won it with a final draw to the button.

Howard shot just 74 per cent but teammates Wayne Middaugh, Brent Laing and Craig Savill each shot over 95 per cent.

“That’s always been the key to our success,” Howard said. “I really believe that. Very rarely will we ever have two guys falter. One guy might be down a little bit. But that’s the key to our team — one guy gets down and the other three pick him up.”

The Canadian skip then defeated Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark to improve to 7-0.

Schwarz, who threw fourth stones after Swiss skip Jan Hauser, said it was quite intimidating to play one of the sport’s all-time greats.

“I tried not to think about it,” he said. “That almost worked.”

A matchup that looked like a gimme for Canada turned out to be one of the most exciting games of the tournament.

The young Swiss side almost pulled out a win in the 10th end when a triple takeout nearly scored two. The single point tied it but Howard used the hammer to his advantage in the extra end.

“I thought we out-curled them the whole game but still I missed a couple of key ones and they made some great ones coming home,” Howard said. “It ended up being a good, good finish.

“Fortunately we had last rock in the extra end and we capitalized.”

The daunting task of facing the veteran Canadian rink didn’t seem to faze Schwarz at all.

Even the prospect of a game-ending time-clock violation didn’t ruffle him.

Schwarz was surveying the house before his final shot of the 10th end when his teammates frantically shouted at him to return to the other end of the sheet.

He had a scant 25 seconds to get down the ice, grab the stone and throw one of the biggest shots of his life.

A teammate furiously cleaned the rock while Schwarz raced to the hack. With the fans on edge, Schwarz took one last glance, got in position and released the stone with exactly three seconds left.

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He went for the victory and came about an inch away from getting it.

“They called the style of game that they had nothing to lose,” Howard said. “Very aggressive and I didn’t see that coming.”

Canada moved into sole possession of first place on a day when two of the contenders suffered losses. The United States crushed previously unbeaten Sweden 10-1 and France upset Scotland 5-3.

— The Canadian Press