"It's a good win," said Greg Johnson, who is playing in his first world championship. "This one is huge because we're above 500. Every win is big at this point."

The Americans are now 4-3 and tied with France, Sweden and Switzerland. Germany improved to 5-2 and Canada remains perfect at 7-0.

Birr (Mankato, Minn.) and teammates Bill Todhunter (Menasha, Wis.), Johnson (Appleton, Wis.) and Kevin Birr (St. Peter, Minn.) got off to a shaky start scoring one in the first while trying to blank the end. The Scots blanked the next two ends trying to get a deuce set up.

The Americans froze two stones in the four foot in the fourth end forcing Smith to follow them in. Smith had a chance to double out the U.S. rocks for possibly four points but couldn't convert the raise and actually gave up a steal of one to the U.S. Smith missed a wide open takeout in the fifth end trying to blank the end to give the Americans another steal of one.

"We felt like we've playing well all week," Johnson said. "The breaks are finally going our way. The games we lost, we couldn't catch a break."

Smith finally got his deuce in the seventh end after getting two stones in the house and exchanging hits with the Americans for shot rock. With the hammer back for the first time since the first end, Team USA got three stones spread apart in the back of the house in the eighth end after Scottish vice skip Craig Wilson came in too light with his takeout attempt leaving the U.S. stone in the house and rolling his shooter out. Smith doubled two out with Birr following him down nearly freezing his stone to Smith's. The skips exchanged hits with Birr scoring two for the U.S.

"We've been playing the same way we've been playing all year," Johnson said. "You can't overlook anyone here. Every game is huge."

Scotland closed the gap to 5-4 with one end to play with a deuce in the ninth after Smith made an open takeout with his last stone. After Scotland couldn't put up a perfect guard, Todhunter came around it to double out both Scottish stone in the house in the 10th end. Smith chipped out the U.S. stone partially buried behind the guard to force Birr to deliver a clutch takeout that just skinnied past the guard thanks to strong sweeping by Johnson and Kevin Birr.

Much to the pleasure of the Canadian fans, Korea's Je-Ho Lee rink finally got in the win column with a 7-6 win over Australia.

Live and on-demand video streaming from the World Curling Championships is available through a partnership between USA Curling, the World Curling Federation, Sports.com and MediaZone. More details can be found at www.usacurl.org.

College Sports TV (CSTV) will air highlights from the Women's Worlds on April 19 at 9 p.m. ET and from the Men's Worlds on April 26 at 9 p.m. ET.
Game scores: USA 6, Scotland 4; Germany 7, Switzerland 4; Korea 7, Australia 6; France 9, Norway 7

USA line score:
*USA 100 110 020 1 6
SCO 000 000 202 0 4

*designates last-rock advantage in first end

Round robin standings
Canada 7-0
Germany 5-2
France 4-3
Sweden 4-3
Switzerland 4-3
USA 4-3
Australia 3-4
Finland 3-4
Norway 3-4
Scotland 2-5
Denmark 2-5
Korea 1-6

USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike as well as by AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

For more information: Terry Luder, USA Curling, terry.luder@usacurl.org, 608-338-9900 (cell).