BEIJING (AP) — Britain and Sweden will play for the Olympic gold medal in men’s curling.

Britain beat the United States 8-4 and Sweden topped Canada 5-3 in the semifinals Thursday night at the Ice Cube venue in Beijing. John Shuster’s American foursome, the reigning gold medalists, will play Canada for the bronze.

Trailing 5-4 at the five-end break, the Americans intentionally blanked three straight ends to retain control of the last-rock advantage, known as the hammer. They would have happily done it again in the ninth end, but Britain boxed them in, and Shuster intentionally threw away his last stone — conceding one point to retain the hammer in the 10th, trailing 6-4.

Bruce Mouat’s foursome left Shuster no good options for his final stone, and in desperation he wound up knocking away all of the red rocks in the scoring area to leave two British yellow ones.

Sweden also played for the big end, blanking the sixth and seventh in a 3-3 game before Canada forced it to take a single point in the eighth. Then Canada took an intentional zero, entering the 10th down 4-3.

Brad Gushue’s last stone in the 10th was inches farther away from the center of the target, giving five-time world champion — and two-time Olympic medalist — Niklas Edin the steal of one.

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