MOOSE JAW — Determined to go out on a high after falling in the semifinals, Canada lead Ben Hebert said his team had a simple plan for Sunday's bronze-medal game against China's Xiaoming Xu at the BKT World Men's Curling Championship.
"Curl good and run them out of the building," Hebert said. "Those guys can't keep up with us."
Mission accomplished.
The Calgary-based team of Hebert, skip Brad Jacobs, vice Marc Kennedy and second Brett Gallant opened with a three and pulled away with five points in the fourth end of an 11-2 win that was essentially over by the mid-game break.
Scotland's Bruce Mouat, who beat Canada a day earlier, defeated Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller 5-4 in the gold-medal game at the Temple Gardens Centre.
Mouat made a game-winning draw to the four-foot ring for the victory. It was his second world title in three years after beating Canada's Brad Gushue in 2023 in Ottawa.
Like hockey, Canadian curling can be tagged with a gold-or-bust feel even though the international competition is strong.
While disappointed to fall to the top-ranked Mouat for the second time this week, ending with a win was important for a host side that hopes to wear the Maple Leaf again at the 2026 Winter Games.
"We wanted to come out of this thing strong, hold our heads high, get ourselves on the podium," said Jacobs. "Do it for ourselves and do it for the fans. We were able to do that today so I'm really proud of us."
Jacobs was aggressive from the start, using his first throw to make a nifty split that put the pressure on. Xu flashed his next stone and Jacobs made a draw for three.
Xu drew against four counters in the third end to pick up his first point. The rout was on in the fourth when China missed an in-off that allowed Jacobs to make a hit for five.
"You don't want to come away empty-handed at an event like this," Gallant said. "We played far too well for that."
With the blowout on, the Chinese players offered to concede after blanking the seventh end. On-ice officials interrupted the handshakes to insist the game reach its eight-end minimum.
The players quickly threw their stones to officially complete the proceedings, making for a less-than-dramatic finish.
"I want to practise getting on the podium in international events with this team," said Canada coach Paul Webster. "Bronze or not, we've got to win our last game of the week and we've got to get in the habit of doing that."
Canada threw at a 95-per cent clip while China was well back at 82 per cent.
Ranked 23rd in the world, China edged Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell 8-7 in a qualification game Saturday before dropping a 7-3 decision to Switzerland.
The Norway win came with some controversy. Replays appeared to show China lead Zhichao Li's broom burned a rock — a curling term for making contact with the stone — before it hit the Norway rock in the first end.
Norway called a technical timeout to discuss the issue. Ramsfjell felt the stone was burned but agreed to let the rock remain on the sheet rather than have it removed.
Umpire involvement was minimal since the athletes played on. A World Curling spokesman said the organization was "aware of the situation" and noted Norway did not make a complaint after deciding to continue play.
The incident sparked online discussion among elite curlers and those throughout the sport's community. Video replay is not used in curling.
Webster said the Canadian team was videotaping many of China's key shots just to be safe.
"We need our officials at world and Olympic levels to take more of a direct role in those situations," he said.
After the semifinal loss, Xu and coach Weidong Tan — who served as interpreter — said the Chinese team didn't feel the broom made contact with the rock.
Hebert said he wasn't thinking about the incident leading into the third-place game. But he didn't mince words after completing the rout, saying the Chinese foursome was "not a real team."
"I don't know how they beat the teams that they did this week here to finish where they did," he said. "But I sure would have liked to get them in the semi. We would have been playing at three o'clock today (in the final). That's not a hard one.
"I (said) last night we were winning bronze. I should have had a few more beers last night, but whatever. It's all good."
Canada's last title at this event came in 2017 when Gushue was victorious in Edmonton.
Overall attendance for the nine-day competition was 77,985. The 2026 playdowns will be held March 28-April 5 in Ogden City, Utah.
Canada's Rachel Homan successfully defended her world women's title last month in South Korea.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2025.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
