Gushue, Canada into playoffs in Vegas

Canada’s Brad Gushue has secured a playoff berth at the men’s world curling championship, but there is still much on the line for him and his St. John’s rink today, the final day of preliminary-round action in Las Vegas. Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker had actually clinched a playoff berth before they took to the ice against China Thursday afternoon; a loss by the Chinese earlier in the day ensured Canada would finish in the top six in the preliminary standings.

Under the new world curling championship format, the six teams with the best records at the end of pool play make playoffs instead of the previous four.

The top two get byes to Saturday’s semifinals, with three to six squaring off in a quarter-final round earlier that day. Medal games are Sunday.

Gushue and his defending world champions are still very much in the hunt for a toptwo finish and a direct path to the semifinals.

A 7-4 win over China’s Dejia Zou — the seventh straight in Vegas for the Gushue rink — improved the Canadians’ record to 8-1, the same as Scotland’s Bruce Mouat. Sweden’s Niklas Edin was on top at 9-1.

Gushue and Edin — the Olympic silver medallist — meet this morning and there is a good chance the winner will finish in the top two. However, Canada had other games to win in that quest, with a matchup against the United States late Thursday night (for the result, see thetelegram.com) and another versus last-place Germany tonight.

Factoring into the situation is Canada’s loss to Scotland earlier in the competition, which would give Mouat the advantage over Gushue in any standings tiebreaker involving the two teams.