The North American nation, who failed to win a medal at the first two editions of the event, were locked at 5-5 going into the final end.

England held the hammer in the final end, but skip Andrew Woolston was a touch heavy with his draw on the final stone to concede an agonising one-point steal.

"It was definitely ugly for us out there again," admitted Canadian skip Trevor Bonot.

"We haven’t hit our stride quite yet, but we’ve made the right shots at the right time. 

"It was really important to get that win this morning, you don’t want to get behind at all, it just makes the rest of the games tougher and more stressful. 

"We all agree there’s lots of room for improvement and we’re nowhere near where we want to be, so we’ve got some work to do."

It proved a tough morning for the British teams as Scotland were surprised 6-5 by South Korea.

South Korea continued a good day by defeating Denmark 7-3 later in the day.

Estonia continued their good form with an 8-3 win over Japan, while Poland edged Australia 4-3 in a tense and low-scoring dual.

"Let’s hope we can keep our momentum after this win," said Estonia skip Andres Jakobson.

"We have another game today against Hungary and they are also very strong so let’s hope we can win to keep the momentum going. 

"Tomorrow we’ll have a break, go to the mountains, relax a little so we can come back the following morning fresh and rested for the game [against Russia]."

China also continued their unbeaten form.

A close 6-5 success against Latvia was followed by an 11-2 thrashing of France.

Action will continue until October 14.

Each team consists of two male and two female players.

Round-robin competition is due to take place until next Thursday (October 12) before knock-out action begins.