China takes down Martin in extra end

After defeating the top teams in the tournament already, Kevin Martin and his Canadian team looked like they might be able to run the table at this year's worlds. But all that was ruined as Team China, skipped by Fengchun Wang, came from nowhere to bring Martin's incredible twenty game winning streak to a halt.

The game started as most expected, with Canada jumping out to an early 3-0 lead. They even played well without the hammer, holding Wang to a single point in the second. But then the wheels came off Team Canada, as they struggled to make even the most routine shots. China capitalized on everything. China stole a point in the third to pull within one, then after Martin scored in the fourht, China came back with a point of their own in the fifth. China, again, pulled off a steal, tieing the game at 4-4 after six. Martin blanked the seventh before scoring one in the either. Martin desperatly tried to force China to take a point in the ninth so that Canada could have the hammer in the tenth, but China effectively cleaned house to get the blank and retain hammer into the tenth end.

Now Martin's strategy was to get a steal, but the house started getting too cluttered so he switched gears and forced a single point. This sent the game to an extra end with the game all evened up at 5-5. Canada had the hammer in the eleventh end, but couldn't do much with it. China pulled off the upset, stealing one in the extra end to win it 6-5.

This was the first game Martin has lost in over a month, when he came up short against Kevin Koe in the Canada Cup final on March 2nd. Between then and now, Martin pulled off twenty straight wins against some very notable players. Martin downed teams such as Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue, former world champions like Glenn Howard, David Murdoch, Kerry Burtnyk, and Andy Kapp. Despite the loss, Canada still sits in first place at the Men's Worlds, two points ahead of the second place teams; Australia and France, who are tied with 5-3 records.

China keeps its playoff hopes alive with the win. They improve to a 4-4 record, and sit just behind Norway and Scotland who are tied for the fourth and final playoff spot.