BASEL, Switzerland -- Canada is off to a good start at the world men's curling championship.
Glenn Howard opened round-robin play Saturday with a 7-5 victory over Thomas Dufour of France. Howard and his team of third Wayne Middaugh, second Brent Laing and lead Craig Savill scored three in the seventh end to pull ahead to stay.
"The boys hung in there," Howard said. "We didn't panic, we just did what we had to do. I thought we outplayed France in the last half of the game and that basically was the difference."
Canada will play Germany and the United States on Sunday. Top skips like Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, Scotland's Tom Brewster and Sweden's Niklas Edin are on tap next week.
In other early games, Norway needed an extra end to defeat Denmark 6-3, Germany outscored the Americans 8-6 and Scotland topped New Zealand 5-3.
The Canadian players looked slick with their black and red shirts, white belts and black pants. The Norwegians, playing on the next sheet over, retained their usual fashion edge with their colourful flag-inspired trousers.
The atmosphere was rather tepid at the 9,000-seat St. Jakobshalle as only a few hundred fans were in attendance.
There were pockets of fans from each country in the arena. A few Canadian flags and banners were spotted and some vocal French supporters were on hand as well.
Howard is looking to win the world championship for the fourth time. His previous titles came in 1987, 1993 and 2007.
He teamed with Laing, Savill and Richard Hart to win his last world title. Middaugh joined the team prior to this season after Hart's retirement.
Round-robin play continues through Thursday. If necessary, tiebreaker games will be played Friday.
The Page playoff system will be used at this event. Playoff games begin Saturday and the medal games are on tap April 8.
Teams also have an opportunity to earn Olympic qualifying points for their countries at the competition.
Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton beat Scotland 6-5 in last year's world championship in Regina. The 2013 event will be held in Victoria.
Notes: The Canada-France game was featured prominently on the lone big-screen monitor in the venue. ... World Curling Federation vice-president Patrick Hurlimann threw the traditional first stone. Howard and Swiss skip Jan Hauser handled brusher duties. Hurlimann skipped Switzerland to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. ... Basel hosted the European Curling Championships in 2006. ... Canada has won the world men's curling title in four of the last five years. Host Switzerland's last gold medal came in 1992.
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