Scotland will meet Canada in Friday’s World Men’s Curling Championship semi-final, with the match live on the BBC Sport website & iPlayer (22:00 BST).
Matt Dunstone’s Canada made a three at the 10th end to defeat Italy 9-7 in their play-off. The United States registered the vital extra-end point to beat Switzerland 9-8 to set up a semi-final meeting with Sweden.
The winners will meet in Saturday’s final (21:00) after the third and fourth place play-off (16:00).
Scotland, led by Ross Whyte, reeled off 10 successive wins to seal their semi-final place in Utah. The Swedes, Scots and Canadians all finished the round-robin stage with a record of 10 wins and two defeats.
Sweden beat the Scots in their opening game, Scotland beat the Canadians and Canada beat the Swedes, ruling out head-to-head records, with the top two spots settled on the “draw-shot challenge”, the most accurate first shot that decides which rink has “hammer” at the start of each match.
In their tournament debut, skip Whyte, along with Robin Brydone, Euan Kyle and Craig Waddell, are looking to retain the title for Scotland after last year’s win by Bruce Mouat’s world number ones. Mouat’s rink elected not to compete following their silver medal at the Olympics in Cortina.
Brad Jacobs’ Olympic champions from Canada, currently ranked two in the world, are also missing this world championship, leaving Dunstone and Whyte’s rinks as the two highest ranked sides in the competition.