World Men's Curling Championship: Sweden crushes Norway for gold, Canada rebounds for bronze

It was a blowout. It wasn't a blowout. Then, again, it was.

In a game that started out as crazy as the 'DoodleArt' pants the Norwegians were wearing, Team Sweden gathered three-enders the way kids grab Easter eggs, on the way to a 9-5 win over Thomas Ulsrud and his defending champion rink from Oslo.

A steal of three for Sweden in the first, a steal of two for Norway in the third... that's just not what you'd call normal in a world championship men's curling game. That's precisely what happened, however, as the Swedes saw their early advantage evaporate, before scoring three-balls in the fifth and seventh ends to pull away for good.

When Norway, down 9-4 after seven, was forced to a single in the eighth, you knew the game was essentially over. It ended, officially, when the delightfully entertaining Ulsrud slid out for his last shot in the ninth, dropped his broom, turned the rock on its side and rolled it down the ice, to the delight of the crowd in Halifax. (Click here to see it)

It was his 'Ulsrudian' way of tipping his cap to the victors. While it was Edin's second championship in three seasons, it was his teammates' - Oskar Eriksson, Kristian Lindstroem and Christoffer Sundgren - first win. Together, they got hot after a slow start (losing two of their first five games) and reeled off nine straight victories to take the championship. That they waltzed by Norway shows you just how hot they got. Ulsrud and company had won ten straight games heading into the final.

It wasn't all about good-naturedly conceding the game for Ulsrud. He and his mates scrambled back to even after their disastrous start of bestowing a steal of three in the first.

Ulsrud really showed his mettle in the second end when he made an intricate - and fraught with danger -  double tap on two Swedish stones to allow his first shot (which was a superbly delicate and exacting draw) to count. If he'd missed it wide, the Swedes could have been up 6 or 7 nothing. Instead, it was a 3-1 count and the Norwegians' steal of two in the third made it a whole new ball game.

At least for a while.

Team Sweden got strong games, once again, from Edin and his third Eriksson, who'd skipped his way to a silver last year. While they weren't the same dazzlingly efficient duo that they'd been against Canada in the semi-final on Saturday night (Edin had shot 100% and Eriksson 98%), they were still much the better of the Norwegian back end. Edin was 15% better than Ulsrud, while Eriksson was an ocean apart from Norway's third, Torger Nergard, a full 26 points better.

This world championship win is obviously the topper in Edin's multi-week stay in Canada, so far. In the run up to the worlds, his team lost two finals to Mike McEwen's Manitoba team, including the Grand Slam's 'Elite 10.' As fate would have it, McEwen and Edin find themselves in the same pool for the upcoming Players' Championship, being held in Toronto this week.

If this world championship is Team Edin's steak dinner, a win in Toronto - especially if it comes at the expense of McEwen along the way - would make for a tasty selection from the dessert cart for the 2014-15 season.

BRONZE FOR CANADA

In the bronze medal game, the Canadians looked much more like the team that caught a wave part way through the Brier and then rode it to a championship. They defeated Finland, 8-4.

Leaving skip Pat Simmons to be more in control of the game was a good thing. The night before, in their 6-3 loss to Sweden in the semi-final, it sure looked like a case of too many cooks, as third John Morris seemed to be the de facto skip, calling shots from the other end of the ice as he waited to sweep, hopping on even a second of hesitation by Simmons in the house.

Against the Finns, Morris had plenty of input, but not nearly to the extent of Saturday night's crusher. With that Kind of equilibrium restored, the Canadians looked comfortable and in sync.

It was a nice rally and even though their World Championship adventure didn't end up with a gilded medal, it put the capper on an improbably fruitful, if uneven, season. Now, Simmons, Morris, Nolan Thiessen and Carter Rycroft have some thinking and planning to do. Had they lost The Brier, they may have scattered in the wind. With an automatic invitation to next year's championship as Team Canada, any plans to disintegrate have, ironically, disintegrated themselves.

More food for thought for the foursome; When they're on and when Simmons is left to his own skipping devices, they have shown they could easily be a threat at the 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials. Will they aim for a spot at the 2018 games?