SOCHI, Feb. 12 -- The Chinese men's curling team maintained their unbeaten start to the competition with a 5-4 win against reigning European champion Switzerland in the morning session of the third day's play at the Ice Cube Curling Centre on Wednesday.

With the score level at 3-3, China managed its hammer well after the mid-game break, blanking the sixth and seventh ends and taking a point in the eighth for a 4-3 lead with two ends to play. Sven Michel was unable to score more than one for Switzerland in the ninth end and skip Liu Rui drew the winning point for China with the game's final stone.

It is the first time China's men's team has won three round-robin games in an Olympic Winter Games curling competition, after finishing with a 2-7 win/loss record in its only previous participation at Vancouver 2010.

"This could easily have gone the other way. In the ninth end, Switzerland threw everything at us. We could have easily lost that game - and that's terrible," said China's coach Marcel Rocque.

Rocque kept a low key about the three consecutive victories. "We have won nothing at all. We are just one step closer to our goal, which is to play the play-offs."

The silver medallist from Vancouver, Norway, also maintained its unbeaten start to the competition with an 8-5 win against Germany. The United States earned its first win after beating Denmark 8-5.