Gushue adapting to what happens in Vegas

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 extra-end victory over South Korea followed by a quicker 9-2 win over Japan.

Canada and Scotland’s Bruce Mouat were tied at 5-1 behind Olympic silver medallist Niklas Edin of Sweden and Norway’s Steffen Walstad, both at 6-1.

The Canadian skip felt he had a better handle on the Orleans Arena ice Tuesday, but had also accepted the off-ice 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 daily.

Gushue prefers more separation between the event and the team’s down time between draws, so he and his crew can 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.”

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.

Russia’s Alexey Timofeev was 4-2, ahead of Switzerland’s Marc Pfister at 3-3.

South Korea’s ChangMin Kim and China’s Dejia Zou were both 3-4, Italy’s Joe Retornaz 2-4 and Japan’s Go Aoki dropped to 2-5.

Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands and Greg Persinger of the Netherlands were tied 1-5 and Germany’s Alexander Baumann was 1-6.

In Tuesday night’s game, Japan, skipped by 18-year-old Go Aoki, was outmatched by the Canadians and shook hands after giving up a steal of two in the sixth.