Canada’s Gushue escapes with 8-7 win over Italy
LAS VEGAS — Canada’s Brad Gushue stole a point in the last end to beat Italy’s Joel Retornaz, 8-7, at the men’s world curling championship Monday.
Norway’s Steffen Walstad and Sweden’s Niklas Edin were tied atop the standings at 4-0 with both teams having the afternoon draw off.
Canada improved to 3-1 and sat tied with China’s Dejia Zou and South Korea’s ChangMin Kim. China beat the South Koreans, 9-4.
Retornaz skips Italy, but throws third stones. Six-foot-six Amos Mosaner, 22, throws fourth rocks with accuracy on bigweight shots.
Mosaner opted to play the double takeout instead of draw the four-foot rings for the win in the 10th end. He missed Canada’s shot stone and gave up the steal.
Gushue squandered a gift to score two in the ninth end and come home with the lead when Mosaner’s shooter rolled out of the rings on a hit.
But Gushue also lost his shooter on an open hit for the deuce and took one.
Retornaz ticked on a Canadian guard in the eighth, and Gushue put the pressure on the Italians in an attempt to steal. Mosaner faced five Canadian stones in the rings but made his draw for a 7-6 lead. The Canadian skip opted to draw for one in the seventh end and tie it up 6-6, instead of a risky takeout that might have yielded two.
Gushue’s attempted double takeout in the sixth didn’t pan out and his shooter rolled wide, which left Italy a draw for three and a 6-5 lead.
Mosaner’s runback double takeout in the fifth end negated Canada’s chance for a deuce. Gushue drew against two Italian counters for one and a 5-3 lead.
Canada couldn’t get the rolls in the fourth to set up a double takeout of Italian counters. Mosaner’s open draw for two had Italy trailing 4-3.
Mosaner lost his shooter on a pair of hits in the third end, leaving Gushue a draw for two and a 4-1 lead.
Mosaner got Italy out of trouble in the second with a double raise triple takeout.
He faced a soft tap for two with his final stone, but hit Canada’s top stone too thick and scored one.
Mosaner left enough of his final draw exposed for Gushue to tap for two in the first end. A measurement for a possible third point went in Italy’s favour.
Canada won the pre-game draw to the button that determined which teams starts with hammer for a fourth straight game.
Retornaz beat Gushue 7-6 in an extra end during the preliminary round at the 2006 Olympic Games, although Gushue went on to win the gold medal in Turin, Italy.
The top six teams in the preliminary round advance to playoffs with the top two getting byes to the Saturday’s semifinals.
Teams three to six square off in the quarter-finals earlier Saturday.