GRAND FORKS – Scotland pulled off a shock victory, coming back from a 6-2 deficit to defeat mighty Canada and qualify for Sunday's final of the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship.

David Murdoch of Lockerbie, the 2006 world champion, was only 16 years old when current teammates Graeme Connal and Peter Smith stunned Canada's Kevin Martin in the final of the 1991 World Men's Championship.

17 years later, the Scots won the playoff against round-robin winner Canada to head to the 2008 World finale.

"That showed the true character of our team," said the 29-year-old Murdoch. 

"We're Scots, and we don't give up. We just hung in there. We knew they were going to go defensive on us... and it just worked out for us."

Canada built a 6-2 lead thanks to two big three-enders in the second and fourth ends. But it was the last points they would score, as Scotland took their second deuce in the sixth end, and then stole the seventh, ninth and 10th ends for the 7-6 win.

"That's a bit of a kick in the seats," said Canadian third John Morris.

In the final frame, Canadian lead Ben Hebert made two perfect "tick" shots to clear the path for Martin's final stone. Instead of a an open takeout, Martin elected to draw down to the Scottish stone, but the rock hung straight and never curled in for shot stone.

"That was a weird one," said Martin. "I don't have an explanation for it."

A similar shot occurred on Martin's final shot against Norway in the round robin. However, the stone did move from the straight spot and just made it into shot position for the win.

Martin now faces Norway again, this time in Saturday's semi-final. The Norwegians, led by Thomas Ulsrud, upended China in the other Page playoff game earlier on Friday.

Martin's achilles heel on the world stage continues to be Scotland. In addition to the 1991 Worlds loss, the Canadian skip  lost the 1997 World bronze medal game to Scotland's Hammy McMillan and also lost the 1986 World Junior final to Scotland's Douglas Dryburgh.

Numerous television groups are delivering live and tape-delayed action, plus highlight packages, to world curling fans. Eurosport, CBC/CBCSports.ca/Bold (Canada), NBCOlympics.com and WCSN (United States) and CurlTV are all on site in Grand Forks.

Live results, with linescores and shooting percentages, are available via: worldmenscurling2008.com with mirrored scores also posted at: results.worldcurling.org