Canada’s Brad Gushue rebounds with win over Switzerland

LAS VEGAS — Canada’s Brad Gushue sees challenges ahead in defending the world men’s curling championship.

His team rebounded from a rough first day in Las Vegas with a 7-2 win over Switzerland’s Mark Pfister on Sunday.

Olympic silver medallist Niklas Edin of Sweden topped the standings at 4-0 ahead of Norway’s Steffen Walstad and South Korea’s ChangMin Kim, both at 3-0.

The Canadians were tied at 2-1 with Scotland’s Bruce Mouat and China’s Dejia Zou. Canada has a single game Monday afternoon against Italy’s Joel Retornaz (1-2).

Gushue wasn’t pleased with ice or game-clock management in a loss to Scotland the previous night when he was down to 30 seconds on his final throw.

Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker quickly dispatched the Swiss, however, in a six-end victory Sunday.

"The most important thing is for us to start to feel comfortable out there,” Gushue said. “I don’t think we’re there yet, but that was certainly a good step forward.

“We do have to embrace the challenges that are going to be in front of us if they don’t change.”

Gushue says the Orleans Arena ice continues to run slow and straight, particularly when a stone is thrown down a fresh path.

“This is the slowest ice we’ve played on in I’m going to say, maybe five or six years for sure.”

His foursome from St. John’s, N.L., went undefeated to win the world title last year in Edmonton.

They had the morning and afternoon draws off Sunday before facing the Swiss at night.