Final Event: LGT World Men's Curling Live Free Saturday April 4, 2026 Updates dates, times

OGDEN, Utah — It was a grind, but it was worth every bit of the effort it took for Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone to advance to the semifinals at the 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship.

Dunstone’s Winnipeg team somehow, some way, scrapped its way to a 9-7 win over Italy’s Team Stefano Spiller Friday morning at the Weber County Ice Sheet.

With the victory, Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton advance to Friday’s 5 p.m. (all times Eastern) semifinal against Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte.

Dunstone took advantage of a missed draw by Spiller with his final stone of the 10th end to make a double takeout to score three for the victory in a game that Canada struggled to establish momentum.

Team Canada fans celebrate after Friday’s playoff win over Italy. (Photo, World Curling/Stephen Fisher)
“I’m so proud of the guys,” said Ryan Harnden. “We battled, I thought we played really well, and what a beauty on the last one.”

The path to get to Dunstone’s game-winner was anything but easy, as the Italians took advantage of some early misses from the Canadian skip to hold Canada, which held the hammer to open the game, to a single in the second end, and then scored three in the third.

“The (guys) hung with me,” said Dunstone. “I was terrible in the first half of that game. We stuck with it and found a way to keep the deficit to two points at the half. I just told the guys, ‘Just stick with me, keep giving me shots to put multiples on the board.’ They did. I finally executed in the back half the way that is expected of me. That was just a testament to the team sticking together and nobody going inwards because that could have got really bad really quick. We stuck with it and just gave ourselves a chance.”

It was a 4-2 lead for Italy at the fifth-end break after the teams traded single points, but Dunstone sparked the Canadian comeback in style with a stunning steep-angle in-off to remove a buried Italian stone from the button and score a crucial deuce.

But Italy replied immediately with a deuce of its own to restore the two-point lead, only to watch Dunstone reply with a draw for two in the eighth to tie it.