The imperious Russians have now won all seven of their matches at the tournament so far and sealed their passage into the next round by virtue of victories over China and hosts Finland.

In the morning session, the Chinese proved tough opposition for Russia in what was a tight contest, with the two teams separated by a single point throughout until the unbeaten side edged the win 4-3 in the final end.

Their match in the afternoon proved to be a much more comfortable affair as Finland conceded in the seventh end with the score at 9-3, thanks largely to Russians taking four points from the fifth end.

"It was our minimum plan to qualify for the play-offs," Russian coach Anton Batugin said.

"We already knew that we would qualify before the game and that helped.

"Our experience was a big psychological advantage over the Finnish team today.

"The play-offs are a new competition and we have to start again.

"We've won six tournaments this season - we participated in eight and won six, so I think we're good enough, we can win."

China strengthened their second-placed position as they moved to an overall 5-2 record with one win and one loss ©WCF/Alina Paulyuchik

Meanwhile, reigning world and Paralympic champions Canada kept their hopes of qualification alive as they claimed a 6-4 victory over Scotland in the morning before they inflicted a crushing 9-2 defeat on Norway.

The morning session provided bags of entertainment for the crowd at the Kisakallio Sports Institute as after Canada's narrow win, Slovakia beat Sweden by the same margin, while Norway clinched a 6-2 success over Germany.

Perhaps the most thrilling encounter was between the United States and Finland, which the host nation edged by a 7-6 margin to the delight of the home crowd, although they could not follow it up with another victory in the afternoon as they lost to the dominant Russians.

China strengthened their position in second place with a comfortable 8-3 win over Germany, and Sweden put a dent in the American team's play-off hopes.

The bottom three teams will be relegated to the World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event, and two of those faced off in the evening session as Slovakia recovered from 4-0 behind to beat Scotland 6-5.

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