Gushue finding his game
CANADA MOVES TO 5-1 AT MEN’S WORLD CURLING
Las Vegas has been a lesson in adaptation for Brad Gushue’s curling team.
Gushue and teammates seemed to hit their stride Tuesday at the men’s world curling championships with a pair of wins — a 7-6 extraend victory over South Korea followed by a quicker 9-2 win over Japan.
Olympic silver medallist Niklas Edin of Sweden remained out front at 6-0 followed by Canada, Scotland’s Bruce Mouat and Norway’s Steffen Walstad all tied at 5-1.
The Canadian skip felt he had a better handle on the Orleans Arena ice Tuesday, but had also accepted the office environment is different than any other major curling championship.
The 361 Men’s World Curling Championship is the most southerly world championship with desert temperatures ranging from a high of 25 to 30 C daily.
Gushue prefers more separation between the event and the team’s down time between draws, so he and his crew get a mental break from curling.
The Orleans hotel is a short, hot stroll to the Orleans Arena. Curlers, fans, officials and volunteers are together all the time at the hotel, rink and pool.
“Outside of moving out, there’s not a whole lot we can do from that perspective,” Gushue said. “Really accepting is a big part of it. Taking our moments and if we can get with our family and stay to ourselves, let’s try and do that as much as possible.
“We’ve got to accept the environment that we’re in for this week. Embrace it as opposed to push up against it.
“That’s a challenge because it’s extremely different from what we normally do at an event like this.”
Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker from St. John’s, N.L., are the defending champions having gone unbeaten to take the world title last year in Edmonton.
The format is different this year with the top six teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round Friday making the playoffs, instead of the previous top four.
The top two gets byes to Saturday’s semifinals, while teams three to six square off in quarter-finals earlier that day.
In other games Tuesday, the Scots beat the Dutch 8-3, the Swedes downed the Americans 7-2 and Norway edged China 6-5
Russia’s Alexey Timofeev was 3-2, while South Korea’s ChangMin Kim and China’s Dejia Zou were both 3-3 with a draw remaining at night.
Switzerland’s Marc Pfister was 2-3, while Japan’s Go Aoki dropped to 2-5.
Italy’s Joe Retornaz was 1-4, while Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands, Greg Persinger of the United States and Germany’s Alexander Baumann were all 1-5.
Japan, skipped by 18-yearold Go Aoki, was outmatched by the Canadians and shook hands after giving up a steal of two in the sixth.
Gushue had to draw the four-foot rings for the extraend win against South Korea in the morning draw.
Canada didn’t have lastrock advantage in the first end for the first time in the tournament, but stole three points over the first four ends.