The second session of men's curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics featured a rematch of the 2018 gold medal game amongst the four played.
Sweden defeated Team USA in that rematch while Canada, the ROC and Great Britain were also victorious. Denmark and Switzerland had the session off.
Sheet A: Sweden 7, United States 4
In a rematch of the 2018 Olympic final, Sweden defeated Team USA to open pool play at 2-0.
The win was powered by scores of two points in the second and fourth ends as well as a steal in the fourth to give the Swedes a 5-2 lead through five ends.
American skip John Shuster played a successful draw to score two and reduce the deficit to 5-4. In the seventh end, Swedish skip Niklas Edin cleared out three Team USA rocks to score one.
A steal of one in the eighth and a blanked end in the ninth was enough to send Sweden to the top of the pool play standings.
"All of the wins in the early stages of the Olympics are super important not just to egt the wins, but also for confidence and breathing room", Edin said.
"We're still not playing perfect, but for each game we'll try to improve small details. If we can reach the playoffs, we'll be dialled in on the ice and the rocks."
Team USA drops to 1-1.
Sheet B: Canada 6, Norway 5
In a match that featured three blanked ends, Canada improved to 2-0, edging past Norway, who are now 1-1.
The Canadians opened with two points in the first end with the Norwegians matching them with two in the second.
Canada blanked the third and with a Norway stone lying shot rock and frozen, skip Brad Gushue drew to the other side to get a point and make it 3-2.
With the score tied 3-3 after seven, Gushue played a hit-and-stay to score two and go back in front 5-3. Norwegian skip Steffen Walstad played a fine long raise takeout to again level the score.
In the tenth, Gushue controlled the end, eventually drawing for one point and the win.
"We played well today and controlled the game nicely, much more comfortably than yesterday", he said. "There's going to be a lot of teams beating each other, so if you can get a few wins under your belt early, it gives you a little bit of a buffer."
Sheet C: ROC 7, China 4
The ROC picked up their first win of the tournament by breaking open a close game late against the hosts.
China (1-1) led 3-2 after five ends, but in the sixth, Chinese skip Ma Xiuyue could only get around one ROC stone to give them a steal of one and tie the game.
In the eighth, Xiuyue's final stone was well-swept to give China a 4-3 advantage, but in the ninth, ROC skip Sergei Glukhov scored four, which proved to be the difference.
Sheet D: Great Britain 7, Italy 5
In the first game for both teams, Great Britain won a back-and-forth contest.
Italy got on the scoreboard first with two in the opening end. The Brits countered with one in the second before a hit-and-stay by Italian skip Joel Retornaz to restore their two-point advantage.
In the fourth, a tap around a front guard by Great Britain skip Bruce Mouat scored two to tie the game. A hit-and-stay put the Brits in front for the first time at 5-4.
Leading 6-5 after nine, Mouat drew inside an Italian stone sitting in the house to score a point and seal the win.
"It was tough", said British second Bobby Lammie. "They obviously got off to a slightly better than us, but we knew that if we stuck with it and we stuck together, grind it out, we'd probably get more chances in the second half and that's what happened."