Canada steals into world junior men’s final

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This article was published 15/03/2009 (6277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — A big steal put Canada’s Brett Gallant into the men’s final Saturday at the world junior curling championships.

Now the skip from Charlottetown is looking forward to a chance today to pocket the gold medal.

Gallant overcame a shaky start and stole six points in the sixth end to defeat Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark 11-5 in eight ends in the 1-versus-2 match of the Page playoff system.

“I don’t think I’ve ever stolen six before,” said Gallant, 19, a first-year business student at the University of Prince Edward Island. “It just turned out that way. They missed a couple of shots and we made a few.

“That really turned the game around. It was a really tight game until then and they had controlled most of it. We were a little fortunate.”

Stjerne was to play defending champion Chris Plys of the U.S. in a semifinal game late Saturday night. The winner was to face Gallant for the gold medal.

Plys scored two in the 10th end to defeat Oskar Eriksson of Sweden 7-5 in the 3-versus-4 playoff game. It was a repeat of last year’s final, where Plys took the gold.

Reaching the final means Gallant and his rink of third Adam Casey, second Anson Carmody and lead Jamie Danbrook have almost completed the journey they mapped out for themselves at the start of the season.

“It’s been our goal all year long,” said Gallant. “We wanted to win the world championship.

“We’ve made every step so far. Just one more game to go.”

— The Canadian Press