US Defeats Canada 7-6

The US Men's Curling Team from Mankato, Minnesota, curled their starred-and-striped butts off Wednesday night to defeat Canada, scoring three in the 10th end at the 2007 Men's World Curling Championship. Through the entire game, it became apparent that the US team was playing much better than they did against France, often forcing Howard of Canada to blank or take just one point rather than score 2 or more points when he had the hammer (as in ends 4, 5, 8, and 9).

It was an awesome display of curling, as both teams curled over 90% (details here). In fact, Canada marginally out-curled the US percentage-wise, but in the 10th end, with Canade leading by two points, both Hart and Howard had slight misses, culminating with Howard's wrecking on a guard to leave Birr with a gentle tap for three and the win.

As Alan said, even though Canada curled over 90%, they appeared to have a chink in their armor, an Achilles' heel, so to speak. At the same time, though, the US team looked very good in the win.

Ironic that Team Canada's first loss should come after I posted that they seemed unbeatable. Oh well. I'm sure that my posting such a thing in Clinton, ON, had nothing to do with the loss, no matter how much power you might ascribe to chaos theory.