Curling: Historic wins see Kiwis in playoff mix

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New Zealand scored a historic win over Canada to reach the playoff rounds at the men's world curling championship in Basel, Switzerland overnight.

Going into their last round robin match, New Zealand faced the toughest task possible - toppling the Canadian favourites, unbeaten in their previous nine games.

In a tense finish, Peter de Boer's Kiwis led by two coming into the final end. As Canadian skip Glenn Howard lined up his final stone he had a one-shot advantage, and scored the point needed to force an extra end.

New Zealand had last-stone advantage in the 11th end, and de Boer used it to perfection with a raise tap-back to sit on the button and score two for a historic 9-7 win, New Zealand's first against Canada.

"It doesn't get any better than that," de Boer said. "We just continued from how we played this morning. The front end set up the ends really well and we just had to stay with them in the first few ends."

Canadian skip Howard, a three-time world champion, was gracious in defeat.

"I give them credit, they played terrific. I think they outplayed us so they deserved to win."

Earlier in the day, de Boer's side faced another must-win match against China, who beat New Zealand for the gold medal at last year's Pacific Asia championship.

New Zealand stole the least two ends to win 6-4 and keep their chances alive going into the Canada game.

The final round robin standings will not be known until the last session of play today, but New Zealand currently sit equal third and are guaranteed at least a tiebreaker to find the top four.