In the afternoon draw, Shuster and the U.S. masterfully took down Canada’s Matt Dunstone in a 9-3 affair that wrapped up after seven ends. It was Shuster’s first worlds win over Canada as skip in nine attempts, although other U.S. men’s teams have twice found success against Canada at worlds in the past eight years.

Afterward, Shuster said a worlds win over a Canadian team had been a long time coming. He acknowledged that Team Canada is always one of the top teams in the event and noted that there had been some pretty wild games over the years.

“To come out here and get a great win against an incredibly good curling team — one of the teams that we’d expect to see if we make the playoffs — was huge for the team,” Shuster told the Curling Channel.

The night game featured Shuster taking on Sweden and skip Niklas Edin in a rematch of the gold-medal game from 2018 Pyeongchang that Shuster won. There was a different outcome Sunday as Edin and Sweden kept Shuster from putting together a multiple-point end in the second half, leading to a 5-3 Swedish victory.

“Tonight was just tough, but like those guys left no margin for error in that game,” Shuster said afterward.

As the 12-game round-robin tournament nears its halfway point after Sunday’s games, Edin and Sweden stand alone at the top of the 13-team field with a perfect 5-0 record. Switzerland, 4-1, suffered its first loss Sunday after a dominant 7-1 performance from Italy and rookie skip Stefano Spiller.

In a postgame interview for the Curling Channel, Edin said he preferred being a 5-0 as opposed to Sweden’s 1-4 start en route to a ninth-place finish at the 2026 Milan Games.

We’re “back to where we want to be, playing really well, having fun, great weather out,” he said. “Things are good right now, but we know how quickly it can turn around and losing a quarterfinal or semifinal is still kind of a 50-50 in this event so we’ve got to keep it up.”

The United States was at 2-3 with seven games to go. The top six teams advance to the playoffs.

United States 9, Canada 3 (7 ends)

After losing a close 6-4 contest to Scotland and rookie skip Ross Whyte on Saturday, Shuster told the Standard-Examiner that the team would seek to build on the success of putting rocks in the right position with draw shots.

The strategy appeared to pay off Sunday afternoon as the United States scored two points against Canada with the hammer in the first end and never looked back.

After the first half of the game saw the U.S. scoring two points every time it had the hammer while forcing Canada to single-point ends, the fifth end turned out to be the dagger for the Stars and Stripes.

In the fifth end, play was initially focused on U.S. yellow stones buried under Canadian center guards. Canadian third Colton Lott attempted to draw behind the lone U.S. stone in the top eight-foot ring, but a slight rub left it exposed to a hit-and-roll from U.S. vice skip Chris Plys, which stuck around for second shot.

Dunstone’s first rock was a little wide and deep in the house, setting up a hit from Shuster and leaving the U.S. sitting three.

After considering a double takeout on two yellows in the back of the house, Dunstone opted to draw in an attempt to be shot rock but was considerably light and ended up as a guard.

Shuster nailed the counter-clockwise draw to the house for a fourth point, putting the game out of reach with the U.S leading 8-3.

With the game out of hand after the sixth end, there was a communication breakdown on Team Dunstone as they debated whether to concede the game or play on. Teammates also discussed whether to bring in alternate Geoff Walker, but they didn’t made a decision before the brief official break between the ends concluded and it was too late to make a lineup change.

Sweden 5, United States 3

With the U.S. down 3-0 entering the fifth end with the hammer, the first of the skips’ rocks saw a cluster of three Swedish yellow rocks and two U.S. red stones bunched around the 4-foot circle mostly above the tee line.

With his first rock, Edin attempted to punch out one of the red stones but ended up knocking out one of his stones and pushing the red rock to the very back edge of the house.

After Shuster executed a double takeout, Edin picked out one of the now-three red rocks in the rings.

The position of the two Swedish stones left enough space for Shuster to throw a double takeout to remove the yellow stones, leading to three points for the U.S. and a tie game.

After Sweden scored a single point in the sixth end, the United States blanked the seventh and eighth ends as it hunted for opportunities to score multiple points.

The ninth end offered a narrow window to score multiple points. During skip stones, Shuster threw a hit-and-roll to push out a half-buried Swedish shot rock in the top 4-foot. The U.S. rock rolled to sit shot on the edge of the back 8-foot ring.

Instead of hitting out the lone U.S. rock in the rings, Edin choose to draw to the top 8-foot behind cover and sit shot.

With just a sliver of the yellow shot stone peeking out from behind the center guard, Shuster attempted a soft takeout shot with the hammer but it overcurled after the U.S. skip called for the sweepers to curl the rock early and it crashed on the guard.

As a result, Sweden stole a single point. With the U.S. down two in the 10th end, Edin placed the Swedish rocks in positions where it was impossible for the United States to score two points, leading to Shuster conceding the contest.

In a postgame interview for the Curling Channel, Edin said the United States was always a tough team to beat, especially coming off of the win against Canada.

“We knew they were really pumped up and fired up to play well, so we had to come out strong,” he said.

After the game, Shuster told the Standard-Examiner that he had gotten a little anxious on the hit in the ninth end, leading to his last stone rubbing on the guard.

“We got one break and got the three, but we were a half inch away from having shots that were perfect and shots that were missed,” Shuster said. “When you play teams like that, you can’t do that very often in men’s worlds.”

Around the rings

After three days of competition, Sweden stood alone at the top of the standings with a 5-0 record. Switzerland, 4-1, was in second after suffering its first loss of the event to Italy, which moved into a four-way tie for third with China, Germany and Scotland.

Canada at .500 was alone in seventh place, while Japan, Korea and the U.S. all had 2-3 records to sit in a three-way tie for eighth.

The top six teams advance to Friday’s playoffs.

Ryan Olson is lead designer for the Daily Herald and Standard-Examiner. He is also a part-time curling instructor for event organizers, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, but was not involved in the event aside from teaching schoolchildren. Ryan can be reached at rolson@standard.net or on Bluesky at bsky.app/profile/quesoguapo.com.