Team Mouat fall to Canada as playoffs become difficult

Bruce Mouat needs a mira-curl on ice after a fourth defeat from five matches left his team's playoff hopes hanging by a thread.

His rink saw a painful 9-5 loss to Canada in their penultimate playoff game and now sit with one 'must-win' match and plenty of other results needing to go their way if there are in with a chance of a second Olympic medal in Cortina.

And with so much hope originally on their shoulders, it isn't looking good for Mouat if they continue to play the way they are.

“We made too many mistakes,” Mouat said.

“I am pretty disappointed. I thought we were carrying the momentum pretty well. I still think that we're doing a lot of good things in the games.

“We know what we need to do. We need to go and win the game. We need to come out and perform as well as we can to hopefully give us a good chance if we get into the semis to build up momentum back up.

“We need a favour from a few teams probably, but ideally if it's all going or trending the right way, then if we win our game, we'll still qualify.”

Only four of the 10 teams will reach the medal matches and Great Britain need all the help they can get after dropping to fifth in the table.

Switzerland and Canada, who beat Great Britain 9-5 last night, are safely through, while Norway and Italy have 4-3 records and are sitting in the final two places.

If they both win their matches today, it will all over for Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr, who have played – and lost – an extra game and sit at 4-4. The next tie-breaker is head-to-head record and they've lost to both.

However, should Italy and Norway lose, then it goes down to tomorrow morning’s final set of round-robin games, with Mouat only able to watch and hope.

Great Britain play USA, also on 4-4, and must win and hope either the Norwegians or Italians lose for a second time. Both just so happen to be playing against the Swiss and Canadians in their last games, so it is not impossible.

Sportsbeat 2026