Gushue punches ticket to final with win over Sweden
Can Brad Gushue beat the guy who has won the last two world championships held in Canada three times in a row?
He may have to. Gushue and his Brier-winning Newfoundland team defeated Niklas Edin for the second time — 7-4 in Friday’s 1-2 Page playoff game — to move one win away from capturing the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.
If nothing else, Edin took the Canadians to a 10th end. It was only the third time in the competition that has happened and Edin has now done it twice. He went the distance in a 7-5 loss on April 2.
The Gushue crew, now a perfect 12-0 in the tournament, advanced to Sunday’s final. Edin dropped to the Saturday evening semifinal against the winner of the Saturday afternoon 3-4 Page playoff between Switzerland and the United States.
Over a dozen games, Canada has now outscored its opponents 96-39.
The Canadian team hasn’t exactly scattered singles in this tournament. They’d only had one end with the hammer where they didn’t score at least two and twice they hit for five. But this night they proceeded to try to put Edin away one point at a time.
Gushue had to draw to the button in the opening end and made the shot by an inch. It was only the second time he was held to a single point with last rock in the entire tournament.
A steal of one in the second and Gushue played the third to force Edin to take one. The Swede was wide on the simple takeout and rolled to the back of the house to give the Canadians another steal and a 3-0 lead after three.
Attempting a tap-back for two in the fifth end for a 5-1 lead, Gushue missed the shot and gave up only his second steal of the event to make it a 3-2 game instead.
When Edin came up wide and light in the seventh with a last-rock freeze attempt, Gushue threw the takeout for three and a 6-2 margin.
Edin, however, proved to be a tough out and came back with two of his own in the eighth to make it 6-4. Taking one in the ninth and a 7-4 lead, Gushue ran the Swedes out of rocks.
Gushue shot 88 per cent to 70 per cent for Edin.
That was the game right there.
ALL ALL-STARS?
At the Brier, all-stars are voted upon by members of the media.
It doesn’t work that way at a World Curling Association event. All-star spots are awarded strictly by player percentages.
Every member of Gushue’s foursome finished first in percentages during their 11-0 round robin run.
So they are all all-stars? Not so fast. It’s not over until it’s over.
While Brier all-star voting is done prior to the playoffs, at the worlds it carries through to the bronze- and gold-medal games Sunday.
At skip, Gushue is so far ahead of the rest of the field it shouldn’t matter. Gushue finished the round robin at 92 per cent, eight percentage points ahead of David Murdoch of Scotland and John Shuster of the U.S.
Canada’s Mark Nichols led all thirds going in to the playoffs at 90 per cent. Sweden’s Oskar Erickson was three percentage points back.
At second, Canada’s Brett Gallant completed the round robin at 92 per cent, three ahead of Magnus Nedregotten of Norway.
Geoff Walker of Canada topped all leads at 92 per cent, one percentage point ahead of Michael Goodfellow of Scotland.