VIERUMAKI -- Finland's mixed doubles team delighted a hometown crowd by stealing a 9-8 victory and eliminating Canada at the 2008 World Mixed Doubles Championship.

Finland is into Friday night's semifinals and a matchup with Sweden.  In the other semi, Norway meets front-running Switzerland.

Jussi Uusipaavalniemi and Anne Malmi swapped three-enders with  Canada's Dean Ross and Susan O'Connor over three ends with Canada  leading 6-4. After a single in the fifth end the Finns stole the  sixth. After the Canadians scored a deuce in the seventh for an 8-6  lead, O'Connor overcame a Ross miss with a game-saving draw, and  Malmi's takeout gave Finland the tie and an extra-end.

In the ninth, Canada looked good until Ross' third and final stone  overcurled on a freeze attempt. The Finns guarded and O'Connor chose  the runback as opposed to a tricky draw, but missed, and Finland was  through the qualifying round and into the playoffs.

"I was pretty happy with my draw in the eighth, that could have been  the game right there," said O'Connor, who fought to control her  emotions after the game.

"Any time you get to play in a worlds, it's great experience. And  hopefully I'll get to use that experience again."

Uusipaavalniemi used to skip the Finnish national men's team until his  younger brother, Markku, became the skip, and eventually a household  name after winning Olympic silver in 2006.

"It's fantastic to win today," said the older Uusipaavalniemi.

"For the last few years I have been playing, but mostly for fun.

"However, Anne and I played for Finland in the last two European Mixed  Championships. And when I first heard that this kind of competition  was coming, a few years ago, I called Anne right away to see if we  should play."

Malmi, who skipped the Finnish women's team at last December's Le  Gruyère European Championships, leaped into her teammate's arms after  the game. Earlier, she and Uusipaavalniemi had raised their voices  during a few animated discussions.

"Oh, that's so normal," Malmi said with a smile.

"Jussi just wants to make sure I see the line of the shot, so he asks  me three or four times. I say, 'Yes! Yes! I see it'. He just wants to  make sure."

The Canadians had taken the long route through the post-round-robin  qualifying rounds, beating Hungary Thursday evening and eliminating  the Czech Republic 11-3 earlier on Friday.

"This was fun, I had a really great time," said Ross, who also made  his worlds debut for Canada.

"The ice was phenomenal, and it has to be for this format. As far as I  can see, it's not about turning the ends around to score, it's about  minimizing damage. You have those runbacks and peels, and you need it.

"We saw one blank end this week," added Ross. "And we didn't actually  see it, it was on someone's scoreboard. Of course, we would have had  one if I hadn't gassed a hit against England."

Canadian coach Paul Webster took copious notes during the inaugural  championship, which concludes with the bronze and gold medal matches  on Saturday.

"After this, the three of us have to sit down and basically write the  book on Mixed Doubles for Canada," said Webster.

The Finnish Curling Association is posting live results online of both Championships. The World Mixed Doubles results are available at:
curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/2688

... and the World Seniors can be viewed at: curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/2687

In addition, results are mirrored on the World Curling Federation  website at: results.worldcurling.org

The host websites for the Championships are: wmdcc2008.com (World  Mixed Doubles) and: www.wscc2008.com (World Seniors).