Curling: US men knock off world champs

Team USA went to an extra end for the second straight game but had a different outcome as the American men defeated the world champions from Norway, 10-7, on Sunday at the World Men’s Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
John Shuster and his Duluth teammates Tyler George and John Landsteiner and Matt Hamilton of McFarland, Wis., nearly squandered a four-point lead to Thomas Ulsrud’s rink at the Scotiabank Centre but held on to get into the win column.
“Any time you can come out and get a win against a really good team like Norway is a good thing,” said George, 32, who is playing in his second world championship. “We let it get a little closer at the end then we would have liked, but at this level playing against the world’s best teams, we’ll take a win however we can get it.”
The U.S. led 7-3 after eight ends before Norway scored three points in the ninth end and forced an extra end with a single point in the 10th  In the 11th, the U.S. controlled the end and placed three rocks around the four-foot circle. Norway’s final draw attempt to get into scoring position hung out wide and Shuster did not have to throw the final stone with the win already in hand.
The U.S. didn’t capitalize on any momentum by losing 9-3 to Switzerland in the evening session. The Americans struggled to consistently make shots in the lopsided loss to Switzerland’s Marc Pfister to fall to 1-2 in the round-robin competiition.
“We missed a ton of shots. I can’t even tell you how many. We just weren’t able to make eight shots in a row,” Landsteiner, 24, who works as a corrosion engineer in Duluth, told USA Curling’s website. “We were struggling with the ice a little bit. It has slowed down after practice in every single game but unlike last night when we played Canada, it changed like three or four times. Tonight it got slower and just kind of stayed there. Their skip was making every draw and we just weren’t sharp.”
The U.S. team faces Aku Kauste’s Finnish team and Italy’s Joel Retornaz today.

• Team USA opened play Saturday night with a high-scoring, 11-10 extra-end loss to Pat Simmons’ Canada team. The back-and-forth match, which Shuster led 7-4 in the fourth end, finished with Canada scoring a single point in the 11th end.