Koe sits second at men’s world curling championship after beating Switzerland

BEIJING, China – Canada’s Kevin Koe doubled up Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz 8-4 in nine ends on Wednesday at the men’s world curling championship to maintain a tie for second place in round-robin action.

Koe and his rink from Calgary are tied with Japan at 6-2 while Norway sits atop the standings at 7-1 with three round-robin games remaining.

Canada needed a good result after losing 9-5 to Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud on Tuesday.

“Obviously, playing Norway, you can lose any time you play them, and we had to come back against a really good Switzerland team,” said Koe.

“That sets us up better. If you’re beating the teams that are tied with you, that can’t hurt. And overall, to play well and get a win is great. We have a huge game tonight (against Sweden). If we can win that, it really puts us in a good spot.”

Koe scored a point in each of the first two ends to go up 2-0 and kept Switzerland off the board until the fourth end when the Swiss cut Canada’s lead in half with a point.

Switzerland (5-3) tied in it in the fifth with one more score. Koe, however, responded with two in the sixth and two in the seventh to open up a commanding 6-2 advantage.

Switzerland stole two in the eighth before Canada cemented the victory with two of its own in the ninth end.

Koe, along with Pat Simmons, Carter Rycroft, Nolan Thiessen and alternate Jamie King, will face Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson later Wednesday.