Canada beats Norway with unusual strategy
LAS VEGAS — Brad Gushue decided the best play was not making one at the men’s world curling championship on Wednesday.
The Canadian skip told vice Mark Nichols to throw through the rings in the fifth end against Norway instead of drawing or hitting.
“I looked at him and said ‘I don’t think I’d ever had to do that at third,’” Nichols said.
Up 3-1 laying two well-guarded counters, Gushue didn’t want to leave Norwegian skip Steffen Walstad a counter move. Gushue felt throwing a rock away was the best option.
“It’s hard to make that call because you can look stupid,” Gushue acknowledged.
“I tend in those situations to look at it as, if I’m Norway looking at that situation, what do I not want them to do? I would want them to put a rock in play where I can potentially freeze to it or potentially come around it. “When I sat back and thought about it, I said to the guys ‘what about throwing it through?”’
Gushue ended up with a soft tap to score two in the end. After a three-pointer in the seventh, the Norwegians shook hands to concede an 8-2 victory to Canada.
“Obviously the result proves I’m right,” Gushue said with a chuckle.
Canada improved to 6-1, tied with Scotland’s Bruce Mouat for second behind Sweden’s Niklas Edin at 7-1. The Norwegians dropped to 6-2, so Canada’s win over them had playoff seeding implications.
The top six teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round Friday make the playoffs. The top two get byes to Saturday’s semifinals, with teams three to six squaring off in quarterfinals earlier that day.
The Canadians were to face Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands (2-5) in the evening draw.
Russia’s Alexey Timofeev chased the top four teams at 5-3 ahead of Switzerland’s Marc Pfister at 4-3.