BEIJING -- Kevin Koes Calgary rink inched closer to a playoff spot at the mens world championship of curling, improving to 7-3 in the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 11-5 rout over Germany on Thursday. Koe took an early 9-1 lead through four ends and sailed home with the win over Germanys Johnny Jahr to assure at least a tiebreaker berth on the final day of round-robin play. The Canadians will complete the round robin with a game against Scotlands Ewan MacDonald (3-6) later Thursday. A win in that game would nail down, at worst, a berth in the Page 3-4 game. A victory, combined with a loss from Japans Yusuke Morozumi (7-3) would put Canada in the Page playoff 1-2 game against Norways Thomas Ulsrud. "Its good news," said Koe. "Weve come through the three-four game a few times with this team (including the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier and the 2014 Alberta mens championship). We just have to get in there. And once we get in there, thats usually when our best games show up. "Were pretty much down to our last life here, so we have to come out against a good Scotland team thats probably going to be playing pretty loose, and take care of business." Canada took control early on against Germany. Koe made a precision come-around tap to sit four and block off the path to the four-foot. German last-rock thrower Felix Schulze needed to make a hit-and-roll for a single, but he wrecked on a guard to give Canada a stolen four-ender. "That nice little hack-weight shot Kevin made in the second, that was good for his confidence," noted lead Nolan Thiessen. "Weve wrecked a few times on those, so to make one and really put the pressure on him to make a really good shot against four early in the game is good. "Youll get mistakes when that happens, and it got us a little bit of mojo and hopefully we can carry it over this afternoon." After Germany was forced to a single in the third, Canada put the victory away with Koe drawing for four in the fourth end. The Germans would cut into the lead with three in the fifth and one more in the sixth, but Canada scored two in the seventh to prompt handshakes. The Germans (4-6) are out of playoff contention. Norway locked up first place Thursday morning with a 6-4 win over Pete Fenson of the United States (3-7), while Sweden (6-4) took an 11-4 win over Japan. A Japanese victory would have all but locked up a spot in the one-two game. In the other game, Russias Evgeny Arkhipov (2-8) took two in the 10th end for a 6-5 win over Denmarks Rasmus Stjerne (2-8). Derek Sanderson Jersey . According to TSNs Farhan Lalji, Richardson is heading to Toronto for a physical and is expected to sign with the Argonauts. Phil Esposito Jersey . The day began ominously for the Rangers when star pitcher Yu Darvish was scratched from his scheduled start with stiffness in his neck. Fill-in Scott Baker gave up three hits over six innings and Chris Gimenez hit a tiebreaking two-out RBI single in the sixth off Phil Hughes. http://www.bruinsstore.com/customized/. Granato was an assistant for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last five seasons, and he was also part of Team USAs staff at the 2014 Olympics. Terry OReilly Jersey .Morse gets a $1 million signing bonus and salaries of $7 million next season and $8 million in 2016 under the agreement announced Wednesday. Jaromir Jagr Jersey . Clevelands manager had just watched his team lose 5-3 to Kansas City, which completed a 2-6 homestand and dropped the Indians 2 1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central.Mercedes have opted for softer tyres than Ferrari for the Russian GP, taking two more sets of supersofts compared to their championship rivals. The Silver Arrows will take eight sets of the red-marked tyres to Sochi for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, compared to six sets that both of the Scuderia drivers will have. Whens the Russian GP on Sky? The race in Sochi is exclusively live on Sky Sports. Full TV times and schedule - click here. However, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will have an extra two sets of softs available compared to their Mercedes counterparts. Both teams will take just the mandatory one set of medium tyres to Sochi. Russian GP tyre selections Driver Medium tyres Soft tyres Supersoft tyres Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton 1 4 8 Mercedes: Nico Rosberg 1 4 8 Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel 1 6 6 Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen 1 6 6 Williams: Valtteri Bottas 1 3 9 Williams: Felipe Massa 1 3 9 Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo 1 2 10 Red Bull: Daniil Kvyat 1 2 10 Force India: Sergio Perez 1 4 8 Force India: Nico Hulkenberg 1 4 8 Renault: Kevin Magnussen 1 5 7 Renault: Jolyon Palmer 1 5 7 Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen 1 4 8 Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz 1 4 8 McLaren: Fernando Alonso 1 5 7 McLaren: Jenson Button 1 5 7 Sauber: Marcus Ericsson 1 5 7 Sauber: Felipe Nasr 1 5 7 Manor: Pascal Wehrlein 2 5 6 Manor: Rio Haryanto 2 5 6 Haas: Romain Grosjean 1 2 10 Haas: Esteban Gutierrez 1 2 10 The boldest strategy choices have come from Red Bull and Haas who have picked 10 sets of supersofts for the Russian GP, with just two sets of softs and one set of mediums for their drivers.ddddddddddddThe Haas VF-16 proved to be kind on its tyres at the Australian and Bahrain GPs in the hands of Romain Grosjean, although they did struggle with Pirellis mandatory tyre pressures in China, which many drivers felt were too high.How the tyre selections differed at the Australian GP, Bahrain GP and the Chinese GP Stats point to Rosberg title Six previous drivers to win opening three races of a season have gone on to win the title Elsewhere, Manor are the only team to take more than the one mandatory set of medium tyres to Sochi, choosing two sets of the white-walled rubber. Dont miss the F1 Report on Wednesday at 8:30pm on Sky Sports F1 for full analysis of an action-packed Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Natalie Pinkham is joined in the studio by Marc Priestley and Alex Lynn. Watch the Russian Grand Prix live only on Sky Sports F1 Every race live in 2016 Sky Sports F1 brings you every race live in 2016. Fast and easy online upgrade - click here. Also See: Whens the Russian GP on Sky? Stats point to Rosberg title ' ' '