Scotland fell just short of completing a stunning comeback as they were knocked out of the World Men's Curling Championships with a 6-5 defeat to hosts Canada in the play-offs.
Bruce Mouat’s rink found themselves 4-1 down after three ends against the home favourites, who had won six straight play-off games against Scotland at the championships.
But Scotland, bidding for a semi-final place, showed plenty of fight as they pulled it back to 4-3 before Canada pulled ahead again, stretching their advantage to 6-4 going into the final end.
And the deficit proved to be too much as Mouat was unable to score the two required to tie the game, missing his final shot to hand Canada a thrilling 6-5 victory.
Two-time world champions Canada now progress to the semi-final, where they will play Switzerland for the chance to face either Japan or Sweden in the final.
Canada opened the scoring in the first end when, after playing a freeze with his first stone, their skip Kevin Koe hit out a Scottish stone to score two points.
The hosts were 4-3 up in the seventh end when Koe drew his final stone onto the button to score one point and move into a 5-3 lead.
Mouat then played a draw onto the button to score one point in the eighth end, reducing Canada’s lead to 5-4, as the momentum swung one way and then the other.
Canada’s Koe played a double take-out in the ninth end and kept his own stone in the house to score another single point, increasing his side’s lead to 6-4 going into the final end.
Mouat hit out a Canadian stone in the four-foot ring in the tenth end but could not keep his own in play – meaning Scotland only score point instead of the two they needed.
Despite missing out on a place in the last four, it has been an impressive tournament for Scotland, who claimed the final play-off spot with a 9-5 win over Italy.
They hammered Germany 9-2 before getting the better of the Italians to progress to the knockout stage with a record of eight wins and four draws.
Among those wins was a final-stone triumph over world champions Sweden, while they also beat play-off conquerors Canada earlier in the round-robin matches.