A powerful performance against Germany's former European champions took Scotland's Team Whyte within range of qualification for the play-offs at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship as they registered their sixth successive victory in the round-robin stages in Utah.
For the first time since their difficult opening day when they lost to both Sweden and Japan, Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Craig Waddell, Euan Kyle and alternate Duncan McFadzean, who was once again able to come off the bench to get some valuable game time in the closing stages, started the match without the hammer and last stone advantage.
That made little difference however, as they forced the Germans to take one at the opening end, crafted and took the opportunity to score three at the second, then left Marc Muskatewitz facing the danger of conceding six, or possibly even seven shots at the third end.
With only half the button to aim at to avoid any sort of steal, the German skip held his nerve admirably to draw the shot and keep his team in the game, but after a beautifully weighted double take-out got the Scots their two at what had been a tricky fourth end, to move into a commanding 5-2 lead, scoring on the even ends, he was back in trouble at the next, this time facing five and when his shot clipped a guard to leave three Scottish stones counting, the contest was effectively over.
"That was a great performance tonight against the German team," said Whyte, after what was ultimately a 10-4 win.
"They have had a couple of good years on tour and they certainly started to come through and began showing themselves as one of the top teams in the world, but we felt we came out tonight and didn’t give them much of a chance.
"We played really well and it was about setting the tempo and what we need to do for each game and it feels great so far.
"He played a hell of a shot, I think it was against seven and I think if it had been me I would have been panicking a little bit but he seemed to keep his cool and it was a very good shot.
"However, ultimately it was another good end by us and a good force on the board and we followed that with a two, so it felt like a bit of a gutter that he didn’t miss against so many, but we didn’t let it affect us.
He was particularly pleased to prove something of a point to themselves as well as the rest of the field in showing how well they could perform without winning the last stone draw contest to have the advantage of the hammer at the start of the match. 
"The two games previously we started without hammer we had lost, so to come out and force and then stick three on the board was a nice feeling," said Whyte.
"Starting the game we were feeling like we had a lot of work to do, but to flip the hammer so quickly and stealing and then really not giving them much of a chance felt like that was the kind of performance we needed which is what we are always working towards before we really start to build and get into a really good place for the last four or five days."
Having eased past Korea earlier in the day, also needing just seven ends to secure a 7-2 win, the victory over Germany was a fourth successive early finish which meant that the Scots have required just 27 of the 40 scheduled ends to win those games and with McFadzean coming off the bench on three occasions, they have been able to give principal sweepers Euan Kyle and Craig Waddell additional time off.
"It is great to be playing so few ends in some of these games," said Whyte.
"It is a lot of sweeping for the boys and it has been a long while since Robin and Euan and I have been in a championship for this long.
"Craig played in this format four years ago, but we don’t get a huge chance to play in such long weeks with two games a day quite often, so its good to be keeping ourselves fresh and getting Duncan on the ice is a good feeling too.
"He seems to be fitting in well when he jumps on and we are in a great place which is definitely beneficial, but if we have to go the full ten ends or extra ends then that is fine too."
Wins on day six against China, who have won three of their eight matches and Norway, who are yet to get off the mark, would guarantee a top six place and a place in the play-offs for Scotland while improving their chances of a top two finish and an automatic semi-final spot, but they are taking nothing for granted.
"We have two tough games tomorrow in China and Norway," said Whyte.
"Both teams seem to be playing quite well, so if we can try to come out firing tomorrow morning and put in some good performances then that would be great to allow in the last stage to maybe get us two more wins and hopefully secure us the semi final spot.
"However, there are a lot of teams around that area that could easily also get that semi-final spot, so there a lot of big games still to be played, but we are feeling positive."
The championship takes place from March 27 to April 4 with all 13 competing nations meeting one another in round-robin competition before the top six go on to battle for the medals.
Scotland’s 12 rival nations are - Canada, China, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA
Please click here for more information about the LGT World Men’s Curling Championships in Ogden, USA (27 March – 4 April).
Watch all games on the Curling Channel.
Day One – 27 March
Scotland – Sweden 5 - 6
Scotland – Japan 5 - 7
Day Two – 28 March
Scotland – Canada 8-3
Scotland – USA 6-4
Day Three – 29 March
Scotland – Poland 7-2
Day Four – 30 March
Scotland – Italy 9-3
Day Five – 31 March
Scotland – Korea 7-2
Scotland – Germany 10-4
Day Six – 1 April
Scotland – China 4pm (GMT)
Scotland – Norway 2am (GMT)
Images: Team Whyte
