Scotland stole one in the 10th end to come back from 6-2 down and earn a 7-6 victory on Friday night that moves them into the final of the men's world curling championships in Grand Forks, N.D.

Canada had the hammer in the final end, but skip Kevin Martin was just a touch long with his shot, brushing by the Scottish stone and allowing skip David Murdoch and his foursome to take the 1-2 Page playoff.

Team Canada skip Kevin Martin looks on as Marc Kennedy, left, and Ben Hebert sweep his stone during Scotland's comeback victory on Friday night in the 1-2 Page playoff.
(Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Martin, from Edmonton, now faces Norway in the semifinals on Saturday with the winner advancing against the Scots on Sunday.

"I hate to give one away like that," Martin said to CBC Sports after the game.

The semifinal goes at 2 p.m. ET on CBC.

Later, Martin told Canadian Press he thought halfway down to the house his final shot looked "golden." But at the end it had tarnished.

"I have no explanation for that one, at all."

Or really for how his team of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert were able to let a 6-2 lead slip away.

"It shows the true determination we have within the team," said Murdoch, who won the 2006 world title for Scotland and lost the 2005 finale to Edmonton's Randy Ferbey.

"We have great character. After the fifth end we just said, we have nothing to lose."

Martin is a three-time Brier winner as Canada's best, but his two previous trips to the worlds ended in a fourth (1997) and second (1991). He also was second at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"We'll just keep plugging along," Martin said after Friday's loss.

Norway takes advantage

Earlier in the day, Norway scored three in the second and two in the sixth on the way to a 7-5 victory over upstart China.

The victory moved skip Thomas Ulsrud's rink to the semifinals.

This was China's first trip to the worlds, and they played well, showing a little inexperience against Norway in the sixth end, when a Chinese curler touched his own rock while trying to sweep an opponent's rock out of the house.

That caused the removal of a Chinese rock and gave Norway the opening for two points.

China plays the loser of the semifinal game for the bronze on Saturday night.