Canada’s Gushue beats Norway, 8-2, with unusual strategy
LAS VEGAS — Brad Gushue decided the best play was not making one at the men’s world curling championship Wednesday.
The Canadian skip told vice Mark Nichols to throw through the rings in the fifth end against Norway instead of drawing or hitting.
“I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t think I’d ever had to do that at third,’ ” Nichols said.
Up 3-1 lying two well-guarded counters, Gushue didn’t want to leave Norwegian skip Steffen Walstad a counter move. Gushue felt throwing a rock away was the best option.
“It’s hard to make that call because you can look stupid,” Gushue acknowledged.
“I tend in those situations to look at it as, if I’m Norway looking at that situation, what do I not want them to do? I would want them to put a rock in play where I can potentially freeze to it or potentially come around it.
“When I sat back and thought about it I said to the guys, ‘What about throwing it through?’ ”
Gushue ended up with a soft tap to score two in the end. After a three-pointer in the seventh, the Norwegians shook hands to concede an 8-2 victory to Canada.
“Obviously the result proves I’m right,” Gushue said with a chuckle.
Canada improved to 6-1, tied with Scotland’s Bruce Mouat for second behind Sweden’s Niklas Edin at 7-1.
The Norwegians dropped to 6-2, so Canada’s win over them had playoff seeding implications.
The top six teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round Friday make the playoffs.
The top two get byes to Saturday’s semifinals with teams three to six squaring off in quarter-finals earlier that day.
The Canadians faced Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands (1-5) in the evening draw.
Russia’s Alexey Timofeev chased the top four teams at 5-2 ahead of Switzerland’s Marc Pfister at 3-3. China’s Deijia Zou was 3-4 and South Korea’s ChangMin Kim 3-5.
Italy’s Joel Retornaz and Japan’s Go Aoki were tied at 2-5. Germany’s Alex Baumann and Greg Persinger of the U.S. were both 1-6.
Gushue, Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker out of the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. John’s, N.L., are the defending champions, having gone unbeaten to win last year’s world title in Edmonton.
Skips throw away their last rocks for a blank end or when they believe there isn’t a better offensive or defensive move.
It backfired on Canada’s Kevin Martin, who was inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame on Tuesday, in the 2009 world championship final in Moncton versus Scotland’s David Murdoch.
After hashing through the angles with his teammates, Martin threw away his first stone. Murdoch made a double bump for shot stone and Martin missed the raise double to give up the steal and the win.
“We still tease Kevin about it,” Gushue said. “There’s times when it’s probably a good call, but the fear of it is what happened to Kevin a couple of years ago and it backfires and you give up a steal.”
Thirds rarely throw a rock away. Nichols says it runs counter to his instincts, but agreed with Gushue’s strategy at that moment.
“You always think you want to put another rock in play, but play the scoreboard, a little safer,” Nichols said. “You just don’t want to give them a shot to get back in the game.”
The Norwegians lead the tournament in stolen points with 11, but Canada didn’t give them any.
Canada was in trouble in the third end facing three Norwegian counters.
Gushue made a hit and roll behind cover to force Walstad to a draw for one. He was light and Canada stole a point for a 3-0 lead.
“We could have been down 4-3 instead of up three nothing,” Gushue said.
“We had to play it pretty tight to the guard, pretty aggressively for a hit and roll, which is scary when you’re facing three,” Gushue added.
“Fortunately, we made it and got a steal and that was really the turning point in the game.”