News Canadian Open

CAMROSE, Alta. — It’s the “return of the king” at the Co-op Canadian Open with Niklas Edin making a surprise comeback from a knee injury.

The six-time world champion and reigning Olympic gold medallist went down during warmups for the semifinals of the HearingLife Tour Challenge in late October and missed four events while recovering from surgery.

Edin picked up where he left off in the win column as his Swedish squad earned a 6-4 decision against Tanner Horgan’s club from Sudbury, Ont., during their first game of the triple knockout preliminary round Tuesday afternoon at Encana Arena.

“I’ve been pretty bored, not going to lie, to not be able to play in the middle of the season,” said Edin, who shot 86 per cent during the game. “I’ve done a lot of surgeries and stuff before but it’s always been planned in May, so you can recover during the summer and plan for a comeback.

“This time I’ve just been waiting and hoping for it to heal fast enough. I’m glad it has though, it could have been worse, so I’m super happy to be back and playing already.”

Horgan kept things tight and tied it 3-3 with a deuce in the sixth end. Edin grabbed the lead for good in the seventh with a crucial three-ender and held Horgan to just a single in the final frame.

“It was definitely important to have hammer in this game,” Edin said. “I think both teams kind of struggled a little bit to find perfect draw weight and come around the guard perfectly, so it was a fairly tight game, low scoring at the beginning.

“It felt like we had the upper hand and then we gave two back in the sixth end. From there, it’s definitely ball game and they go a little bit harder to steal or force obviously. We got some opportunities to make some shots in the seventh, so that was good.”

The Co-op Canadian Open features a triple knockout preliminary round where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell took two in the sixth and stole one in the eighth to beat Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat 4-2.

Winnipeg’s Team Matt Dunstone scored four in the seventh end to close out a 10-5 victory over Saskatoon’s Team Colton Flasch.

Team Korey Dropkin from the United States scored a deuce in the eighth end to edge Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe 3-2.

Triple knockout action continues with Draw 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. local time. Single draw tickets plus full-event, weekend and daily passes are available at the Encana Arena box office and online at camrosegsoc.goigniter.com.

NOTES: The Co-op Canadian Open is the fourth event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season with 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world at Encana Arena. … Broadcast coverage of the Co-op Canadian Open begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and streaming online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or Yare (international). … Triple knockout action runs through to Saturday morning. The quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon followed by the semifinals in the evening. Both finals are set for Sunday.