World men's curling championship: Canada's Simmons beats American Shuster

Canada's Pat Simmons outscored American John Shuster 11-10 in a wild opening game Saturday night at the world men's curling championship at Scotiabank Centre.

Simmons hit an impressive double takeout to score three in the ninth end to regain the lead in the back-and-forth affair. Shuster tied it in the 10th with a tapback but Simmons took advantage of the hammer in the extra end and hit a draw to the button for the win.

Simmons and his Calgary-based team of John Morris, Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen scored a single in the first before the teams combined for 10 points over the next three ends.

In the second, Shuster hit a double takeout to give the Americans a 3-1 lead. A measurement confirmed the third stone was inside the Canadian rock at the edge of the 12-foot.

Simmons wasn't rattled by the early deficit. The Canadian skip curled his final shot of the third end around a guard for a takeout and a three-spot of his own to move back in front.

Shuster answered in the fourth with an incredible angle-raise takeout to score four for a 7-4 lead. Simmons scratched out a deuce in the fifth and pulled even by stealing a single in the sixth end.

The Americans scored a single in the seventh and padded their lead with a steal in the eighth to go up 9-7. It was the opening game for both teams.

Japan looked strong on opening day with a 7-4 win over Russia and a 9-3 rout of Scotland. Skip Yusuke Morozumi scored five in the eighth end to send Scotland's Ewan MacDonald to 0-2.

Earlier, MacDonald — a three-time world champion — dropped a 6-5 decision to Italy's Joel Retornaz in an extra end.

Defending champion Thomas Ulsrud of Norway opened with a 9-7 victory over China's Jialiang Zang. Niklas Edin of Sweden, the 2013 world champion, picked up a 6-5 victory over Finland's Aku Kauste in the afternoon draw.

Edin drew his final stone into the house to score a pair for the victory.

"We made a lot of easy mistakes in the beginning and it took a while to get control of the rocks and the ice," Edin said. "But then once we got that, we played pretty good. I was glad we could turn it around at the end."

Attendance was 2,233 for the opening draw. The venue holds 10,500 for curling.

The top four teams at the end of round-robin play will reach the Page playoffs. The medal games are set for April 5.

Simmons is looking to win world gold for the first time. Thiessen and Rycroft won in 2010 with skip Kevin Koe while Morris was victorious in 2008 with skip Kevin Martin.

Canada has won gold on 34 occasions in this event's 56-year history. The most recent Canadian title came in 2012 when Glenn Howard won in Basel, Switzerland.