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All eyes on Canada in pressure-packed curling

A pressure-packed day of curling came down to the last shot of the last match -- and fittingly, all eyes were on Canada.

Skip Shannon Kleibrink's final stone knocked one of Denmark's rocks out of the center of the target area, then remained just close enough to the middle to earn a point and send the Canadians to the medal round with a 9-8 win on Monday.

The day began with Norway's women clinching a semifinal berth. After that, only one spot remained in both the men's and women's tournaments -- and in each, only Canada controlled its own destiny.

Canada's men beat the US 6-3 and will play the Americans again today in one semifinal. Finland (7-2) and the UK (6-3) will meet in the other.

The Canadian women struggled, allowing the Danes to tie it with two points in the ninth end. But Canada (6-3) prevailed to avoid a tiebreaking day yesterday with the UK (5-4) and Russia (5-4).

Canada will face Switzerland (7-2) in the women's semifinals today, and Sweden (7-2) takes on Norway.

The Norwegians (6-3) clinched their spot on Monday morning by beating Denmark 8-1 in six ends. Also in the morning session, Japan and Russia beat Italy and Sweden by identical 6-4 scores.

That left four teams -- Canada, Russia, the UK and Japan -- alive for the final medal round berth.

The UK, the defending gold medalist, beat the US women 10-4. The Americans (2-7) conceded after six ends to finish a disappointing tournament.

Switzerland beat Japan 11-5 in eight ends to knock out the Japanese (4-5).

Then Russian skip Ludmila Privivkova gave her team a 10-8, last-shot victory over Norway. The Russians celebrated -- and turned around just in time to watch Canada eliminate them.

"It's a big pity," Privivkova said. "We were hoping to play a tiebreaker game, but Canada won."

In the afternoon, the US men had a few more supporters than usual. Both Switzerland (5-4) and Norway (5-4) needed the Canadians (6-3) to lose to stay alive. Switzerland did its part with a 10-2 win over Italy (4-5) that eliminated the Italians. After the match, most Italian fans left, but the Swiss, American and Canadian contingents remained.

So did the Norwegian team, which sat quietly in the stands. Norway, the defending gold medalist, finished round-robin play a day earlier.

Italy conceded its match to Switzerland after only six ends, and winless New Zealand did the same to give the Germans a 10-1 win. So the Americans (6-3) and Canadians had the stage to themselves for about an hour.

Canada took a 4-3 lead on Brad Gushue's takeout in the eighth, then stole another point in the ninth. In the 10th and final end, the Americans conceded when they had no stones in the target area and only one remaining.

The Norwegians applauded quietly afterward.

"I had a feeling that Canada would win the game," Norway's Paal Trulsen said. "Something about Canada -- when they're in trouble they always pick up their game."
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