Gushue says peaking for playoffs paramount

LAS VEGAS — A spot in the playoffs secured at the men’s world curling championship, Canada’s Brad Gushue says his team still has work to do to peak for them.

The defending champion downed China’s Dejia Zou 7-4 on Thursday to be tied for second place with Scotland’s Bruce Mouat at 8-1. Sweden’s Niklas Edin topped the standings at 9-1.

The top six teams, instead of four, make playoffs under a new format this year. The top two get byes to Saturday’s semifinals while three to six square off in the quarterfinals earlier that day.

The medal games are Sunday. Playoff berths assured for Canada, Sweden and Scotland, they’re now jockeying for a coveted top-two finish when the preliminary round concludes today.

The Swedes had the evening draw off Thursday, while the Canadians and Scots had games at night.

Gushue faced Greg Persinger of the U.S. (3-6) and clashes with Edin this morning before wrapping up pool play against Germany in the final draw.

Mouat beat Gushue on the first day of the championship and would thus be ranked higher in the event of a tied record.

“First, we need a little bit of help at this point, but second certainly is in our grasp if we can win out,” Gushue said. “More importantly I just want to see us continually play a little bit better and get a little bit more sharp.”

The skip felt his team’s game isn’t quite where it needs to be heading into the home stretch.

“We’ve got to raise our level,” Gushue said. “It doesn’t feel like we’re far off. It feels a little off.

“We’re not playing up to the standard that we’ve kind of had over the last three or four years, but it certainly feels the teams we played against are playing well.”

Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker from St. John’s, N.L., went undefeated to win the world title last year in Edmonton.

And while they’re well in contention to repeat in Las Vegas, they’ve yet to replicate the seemingly unshakable zone they were in while winning a second straight Canadian championship in Regina last month.