Last year's gold medallists secured the 9-7 victory over China, skipped by Jialian Zang, during the second session of round robin play.

Norway skip Thomas Ulsrud, third Torger Nergård, second Christoffer Svae, lead Håvard Vad Petersson and alternate Markus Høiberg struggled at first before delivering an angle raise take-out to score three points and a 3-2 lead in the third end.

They scored three more points in the fifth end to extend their lead to 6-3, before going on to secure the win.

"That was a tricky game for us," Ulsrud said.

"We struggled at the start, figuring out the ice, but once we got a handle of it we pretty much controlled the game and scored multiple points in a few ends.

"I thought we were going to be cruising but they came back pretty strong so I had to make a pretty good last shot to win."

Meanwhile, Japan top the standings after two victories on the day.

Skipped by Yusuke Morozumi, they first defeated Russia 7-4 before going on to overcome Scotland 9-3 in the second session.

Skipped by Yusuke Morozumi, Japan top the standings after two victories on the opening day ©Getty Images 
"It's very good for us [to have two wins from two]," Morozumi said.

"This is the second time we have beaten Scotland [at the World Championships] and we played well again."

Hosts Canada, with skip Pat Simmons, got their Championship campaign off to a good start by securing an 11-10 victory over the United States, skipped by John Shuster.

Elsewhere, the Czech Republic claimed their first win of the tournament by overcoming Finland 8-7 after suffering a 6-5 defeat at the hands of Switzerland in the earlier session.

"Is it nice to get our first win?" Czech skip Jiří Snítil said.

"Yes, big time after the first loss this afternoon.

"This was very important for us.

"To keep a loss until next day almost hurts more."

For Finland, the defeat was their second of the tournament so far after going down 6-5 to 2013 world champions Sweden earlier in the day.

The other match of the day saw Italy starting their competition with a win, as they defeated Scotland 6-5 in a game that went to an extra end.

"Being here at the Worlds is something big for us," Italy skip Joël Retornaz said.

"Starting with a win gives us confidence and one win, which could be very important at the end of the round-robin."

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