Defeats of two of the most experienced teams in the competition injected momentum into Team Whyte's defence of Scotland's title at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championships in Utah.
Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Craig Waddell, Euan Kyle and Duncan McFadzean had gone into the event in the strange role of both debutants and defending champions following fellow Scots' Team Mouat's success a year ago and, ranked number five in the world, are seen as major contenders.
They suffered a difficult first day, losing to seven-time champions Sweden and Japan, but demonstrated their quality in style as they powered up the standings with victories over the highest ranked team in the competition, Canada's Team Dunstone and the host nation's former Olympic champions Team Shuster.
Having failed to start either of their opening day matches with the last stone at the opening end, they earned that advantage in the draw shot challenge in both matches on day two and made it count both times around, getting off the mark with twos. 
"That was a really good day and we are really pleased to have won both games," said skip Ross Whyte.
"We knew coming out that if we didn’t have our best day it would be a long way to get back into this event, but we had confidence from yesterday that we were playing well and we came out on the wrong side of things for a couple of ends, so to come out and play better was an amazing feeling and we feel like we got the job done today.
"We talked a lot how we were struggling to turn the hammer over early doors in the first ends so we put a lot of emphasis on putting in a good draw shot to give ourselves a better opportunity to get hammer and four great throws from Craig and Robin between them made sure we got that.
"It makes it a lot easier when you can try and get that early lead in the game, but we still had a lot of work to do and we all did a very good job."
In terms of setting a tone, the performance against the Canadians, who had won both of their matches on the opening day, was particularly impressive as they built on that two at the opening end with steals at the next two ends to establish an early 4-0 lead.
After Canada finally got on the scoreboard with a two at the fourth end, Whyte then played a stunning raised double takeout to remove two counting opposition stones and lie three to move into a 7-2 lead and pretty much wrap things up, hands being shaken two ends later with the score at 8-3.
"We had a great game against Team Dunstone and it is always a tough game against them," said Whyte.
They are a good bunch of curlers and they have been around for a long time so we knew it was going to be difficult, but it we stuck a two early doors and didn’t really give them many chances after that, so to come out of that game with a win was very important to get our competition on the go and get us into the winning column."
The encounter with Shuster's men was typically less orthodox against the wily veteran USA skip and Whyte found himself having to play another raised double takeout with his last stone to claim the win, but made no mistake.
"We know with Shuster they like lots of stones in play and its just trying not to feed into what they’re plan is and aiming to always keep the game as close as we want to, which isn’t always easy to do with how good they are at doing it," said Whyte.
"They are a very high quality team and we know that they will be there at the end of the week as well, so we are hoping that we can too and today was a big one to put us right back into the mix so, to be honest, the mood in our camp is a lot nicer that it was last night."
After a brutal schedule on the first two days, facing a string of teams with vast World Championship experience, Scotland now have a very different day three, with only one match against the first ever team from Poland to compete in the event.
However, they have already proven their competitiveness by beating German's 2024 European champions and Whyte is duly wary.
"We have a big game again against Poland who have just come off a big win, so we know it is going to be tough and there are no easy games out here this week," he said.
"Everyone is very, very good so we know we have to give everything in every game to build on the momentum from today, and its all systems go for the rest of the week."
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 09.00 (GMT)
Images: World Curling
