Scotland and Canada will meet in a top of the table clash tonight after both won their sixth session of Pool A at the World Mixed Doubles Championship at Curl Aberdeen.
Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat survived a comeback by Germany, who rallied from 4-1 down to draw level in the fifth end, as they ran out 7-5 winners.
Canada edged Italy 6-4 to join the Scots in a 5-1 record after six matches ahead of their meeting at 7.30pm tonight.
Victory in that match will almost certainly bring a place in the play-offs and, along with it, qualification for their national teams at next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing and Mouat was clearly feeling confident as he looked ahead to that meeting with the Canadians.
He said: “We’re definitely pleased to be in this position. It’s a big game tonight, so we’re going to take everything we’ve learned so far into that game and hopefully come out with another win.
“That was a really high quality game. The Germans played really well against us, which has given us a good test. We’re always really happy to have that and we’ve got some useful learnings from that game that we’ll take forward.”
The man who skipped Scotland to a silver medal at last month’s World Men’s Championships and then victories at Grand Slam events over the following two weeks, said his partner’s performances have allowed him to feel surprisingly relaxed when taking a relatively unfamiliar support role in those key moments.
Mouat said: “I’m actually happy to watch her throw the last. It doesn’t scare me at all because she’s throwing it so well this week. She’s been so consistent and to give her those shots, it’s really nice to see her making them all.”