The scoreline in the Canada - China game caused many fans and officials to experience a wave of nostalgia! Seven blank ends. It was reminiscent of play in the days before the Free Guard Zone Rule, which was introduced to make the sport more interesting. Willian Dion's Canadians had the last stone. He has already said openly that his team prefers a defensive strategy and he was happy to go along with Jialiang Wang's policy of keeping play in the house.

The Canadians took their chance when it did come, and counted two in the eighth. China was forced to take a single in the ninth. The skip partially hid his last stone in the tenth, which was missed by Dion, and the game went to an extra. With a draw to win, Dion put it on the button.

In other fifth round games, the Czech Republic won their first at the expense of Scotland, both teams fielding changed lineups for the match. USA humped Denmark 9-2 in just six ends. Switzerland stole in the tenth end to beat Norway, and retaine their unbeaten record. It took an extra end before Sweden could get past Germany

Standings after five games: Switzerland 5 wins, Canada, Sweden 4 wins, Usa 3 wins, Denmark, Germany and Norway, two wins, China, Czech Republic and Scotland, one win.

In the evening's women round 6 USA's Nina Spatola let a certain victory over Russia slip away, giving up three shots in the ninth, and missing her final takeout to win the game at the tenth.

Switzerland wiped out top of the table Sweden, and Canada beat Japan. Germany defeated Norway.

There was controversy too. A rare umpiring error occurred in the Scotland v Denmark match. After a measure, the umpire indicated, in error, that the shot was Scotland's. This was queried by the Danes, and after conferring with the measuring umpire, Chief Umpire Mats Olofsson agreed a mistake had been made and a new end was begun. Scottish coach Isobel Hannen remonstrated with the umpire and the game was stopped.

The Chief Umpire's decision was to award the shot to Denmark, giving them a 4-1 lead.

This was the wrong decision according to the Scottish coach. "To make it fair on both teams, they should have replayed the end," complained Hannen afterwards.

"But in credit to the girls, they fought on. They are a credit to their country." Scotland eventually lost in an extra end, Madeleine Dupont drawing the four foot with last stone.

Standings after six rounds, Denmark, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, 4 wins, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, 3 wins, Norway, Germany 2 wins, USA, one win.

OSTERSUND – Switzerland's men remain undefeated at the 2008 World Junior Curling Championships after a fourth-round victory over Germany's Daniel Neuner.

The combatants swapped deuces through much of the match, but it was a steal of one in the sixth end which proved the 8-7 margin of victory. 

"It was a really tough game" said Swiss skip Manuel Ruch. "Both teams had a good chance to win this game. It was good we had the last stone in the last end."

The Swiss skip executed a fine shot to win the match, and paid tribute to his team. "My sweepers, they have also done a good work," said Ruch, who added he was pleased to hold an undefeated record.

"Of course, but we've only played four games," said Ruch. "We have five next to come!"

Scotland's fans are having a wild day in Ostersund. Glen Muirhead's team crashed to a 10-5 defeat against Norway, and have only one win from four starts. In contrast, Eve Muirhead, Glen's younger sister, is brimming with confidence. Her team disposed of Kaitlyn Lawes' Canadian side 7-4 in their fifth-round match, after grabbing three points in the ninth end of play.

"It is always difficult playing Canada," said the 17 year-old Scottish skip. "But our coach (Isobel Hannen) psyched us up! How? That's a secret."

Despite her age, the youngest Muirhead holds a championship pedigree. She and teammate Sarah MacIntyre won last year's World Junior title in Eveleth, USA, under skip Sarah Reid. 

After Monday night's win the Canadians had high hopes going into this game. But Lawes admitted, "It wasn't our best performance.

"The ice was totally different than any of the other games we've played," said Lawes. "It added three feet more curl to the four feet we already had. It's ridiculous!

"It caught us off guard."

In other men's fourth-round games, Canada just edged the USA, stealing a pair in the tenth for a 7-4 win, while Denmark beat the Czech Republic 9-3 and Sweden defeated China 8-3.

In other women's fifth-round matches, Sweden thumped Denmark 8-1, Switzerland shaded the United States 6-5, Russia beat Norway 8-3, and Japan beat Germany 7-5.

Real-time results are available at: www.curlingkanalen.se with daily results mirrored on the World Curling Federation website at: results.worldcurling.org

Curlingkanalen is also webcasting selected matches live during the championships, and the men's and women's championship finals will be broadcast on Eurosport's Swedish channel (March 8 at 1400 local and March 9 at 1400).

The event host website is: www.wjcc2008.org

OSTERSUND – The 2008 World Junior Curling Championships have shone a light on the newsest crop of junior curling stars, and the Swedish city in which they are competing.

It has also thrown a spotlight on a dynamic curling secret, which Swedish curling fans have been enjoying for a couple of years now.

Curlingkanalen is a Swedish-based curling web channel, offering live coverage of various Swedish league and national championship games. The World Juniors has now introduced the global web viewer to its services, which include multiple cameras, player microphones, and play-by-play commentary.

The Curlingkanalen crew also like to call upon guest commentators throughout the week. Once such guest has been the World Curling Federation president, Les Harrison of Canada.

"I have done this before," Harrison smiled.

"I've done a lot of community cable and a bit of Rogers local broadcasting back home, including various New Brunswick (provincial) curling events.

"It's very enjoyable to have the opportunity to promote our sport alongwith discussing WCF issues via this webcasting medium," Harrison added. "It's available free of charge around the world, and it's a great service."

Harrison complimented the organization for adding extra bandwidth availability to global curling fans.

"Curlingkanalen has done a great job with limited resources and some WCF assistance and sponsorship to get the WJCCs on the air," said Harrison.

"It might be a somewhat limited audience, but they're certainly enthusiastic. We are very pleased they are providing coverage of this world championship." 

To launch the live curling portal, visit curlingkanalen.se and click on either Titta direct! or the "Live" logo.

OSTERSUND – It was a much happier Canadian men's team which came off the ice at the end of their third round match at the World Junior Curling Championships.

William Dion's side rebounded from their defeat by Denmark Sunday night and overcame Krystof Chaloupek's Czech Republic squad by 6-2 count.

"It was a much, much, much, much better game," emphasized Dion.

"We're a good team but yesterday we all decided to play bad in the same game. We came here today confident. We played our game, which is more defensive. We were on TV, perhaps it was not so interesting. But we didn't care, we just wanted make sure of the win."

In other men's third-round matches, Switzerland beat Denmark 10-4 to become the only undefeated country with three wins, and Oskar Eriksson's Swedes outsocred the United States 10-7. China upset Norway 5-3 in a game which went down to the last stone, and Scotland was demolished 10-3 by Germany in just eight ends.

In women's fourth-round action, Madeleine Dupont's Danish team lost their undefeated record with a loss to Canada. Denmark enjoyed leads of 5-2 and 6-3 but dropped a three-count in the final end for the 9-7 loss. Canadian skip Kaitlyn Lawes didn't need to throw her final stone.

"After the break we just played worse and worse and worse," said Dupont, who lost the 2007 women's world final to Canada's Kelly Scott. "I thought we had a chance all the way to the end.

"We tried stealing (the last end) but it didn't work."

Denmark still shares top place with Sweden and Scotland, and every team in the women's event has won at least one game.

Dupont was confident her team can stay at the top amongst the leaders.

"I still think we have a chance of course. The rest of the teams, we can beat these. We could have beaten these (Canadian) guys too."

In other evening women's matches, Sweden edged Russia 6-4, Switzerland beat Germany 7-3 and Scotland finished 8-4 in front of Japan. The United States also entered the win column with a 10th-end win over Norway.

Real-time results are available at: www.curlingkanalen.se with daily results mirrored on the World Curling Federation website at: results.worldcurling.org

Curlingkanalen is also webcasting selected matches live during the championships.

The event host website is: www.wjcc2008.org

OSTERSUND – It just might be tough curling for the United States junior women's team at the 2008 World Juniors.

When U.S. junior women's skip Nina Spatola competed in the World Junior Curling Championships two years ago in Korea, her team finished the round robin with just one win. She's back again, here in Sweden, and hoping to improve on that record at the 2008 global shootout.

Not that it's going to be easy for the nursing student from Madison, Wisconsin. Their loss to the home side this morning was the team's third defeat in a row.

"I have a lot more experience with my strategy," said Spatola. "It's not so scary as it was last time!"

Spatola admits her team has much to learn. They first assembled just prior their State playdowns earlier this season. Front-enders Karlie Koenig and Jenna Haag are both just 14 years old, while Rebecca Hamilton and Anna Plys, the sister of U.S. men's skip Chris Plys, are 17. Spatola has two years of junior eligibility left.

"We're just looking for experience," Spatola said.

Meanwhile, Canada was beaten by Russia's 2006 World Junior champions to fall to 1-2. Kaitlyn Lawes' team from Winnipeg put four points on the scoreboard in the first three ends but could score nothing thereafter, and the Russians won 7-4. The Canadians were visibly upset after the match.

In other Monday morning games, Scotland beat Switzerland 11-3, and Japan upended Sunday's heroes from Norway 9-3. Denmark defeated Germany 10-5.

 
Real-time results are available at: www.curlingkanalen.se with daily results mirrored on the World Curling Federation website at: results.worldcurling.org

Curlingkanalen is also webcasting selected matches live during the championships.

The event host website is: www.wjcc2008.org