Brad Gushue splits opening draws at men's curling worlds

Canada's Brad Gushue wasn't pleased to be .500 after the first day of the men's world curling championship. Gushue's team from St. John's, N.L., fell 8-7 to Scotland's Bruce Mouat after a 7-6 win over Russia's Alexey Timofeev on Saturday.

Canada beats Russia 7-6, falls 8-7 to Scotland in evening

Brad Gushue, seen here at the Brier, and his Canadian rink split his opening two draws at the men's world curling championship. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Canada's Brad Gushue wasn't pleased to be .500 after the first day of the men's world curling championship.

Gushue's team from St. John's, N.L., fell 8-7 to Scotland's Bruce Mouat after a 7-6 win over Russia's Alexey Timofeev on Saturday.

Match Wrap: Canada split draws in first day of men's world curling championship

7 years ago
Duration 1:34
Brad Gushue managed to fend off the Russians in Canada's first draw, but ran into trouble with Scotland later on.

"Terrible. It was a bad day and not even the record. Just the way we played," the Canadian skip said. "Having a real hard time with the ice. It's not very good."

Gushue was frustrated by what he considered slow and straight ice at the Orleans Arena, saying a quicker and livelier surface makes for better, more entertaining curling.

"Early in the week, you want to learn the ice and get a feel out there and we're struggling with that right now," he explained.

"I don't want to harp on it too much, but the ice has got to improve and hopefully [the icemakers] are feeling it out too and can make some adjustments and have it not so slow and straight."

Aware he wasn't endearing himself to the ice crews, Gushue added with a wry chuckle 'we're spoiled. And that's why I'm complaining because we're spoiled brats."

Going for history

Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker out of the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club went undefeated to win the world title last year in Edmonton.

They're attempting to become the fifth team to repeat and the first since Edmonton's Randy Ferbey in 2002 and 2003.

Saskatchewan's Ernie Richardson twice won back-to-back world championships (1959-60, 1962-63). Calgary's Ron Northcott in 1968-69 and Winnipeg's Don Duguid in 1970-71 also won two in a row.

Canada plays one game Sunday against Switzerland's Marc Pfister (0-2) in the evening draw.

The World Curling Federation changed the championship format this year allowing six teams to make the playoff round instead of the previous four.

The top two teams after the preliminary round earn byes to the semifinals, while teams three to six meet in the quarter-finals. The medal games will be played April 8.

Rising talent

Mouat won the world junior curling championship two years ago. The average age of his team in Las Vegas is 23.5, but they weren't intimidated facing the defending champs.

"It's a big step up for our team, first world championships," Mouat said. "We're excited to be here so we're maybe living off a little bit of adrenaline, but we definitely played the way we wanted to and executed well."

Lead Hammy McMillan, is the son of Hamilton McMillan who defeated Canada's Jeff Stoughton in an extra end to win the 1999 world championship in Saint John, N.B.

Gushue missed an attempted angle raise takeout leaving Mouat a draw for two and the win in the 10th.

"What really frustrates me is the last shot," Gushue said. "We were short on time and that's mostly my fault. Mark said that shot was there.

"We hit it right where we wanted and it wasn't even close to there."

Back-and-forth affair

Mouat attempted a wide double takeout in the ninth to score two, but wrecked on a guard and gave up a steal of one to trail 7-6 coming home with hammer.

Gushue drew the four-foot rings against two Scottish counters in the eighth to even the score 6-6.

Canada was up 5-4 after holding the Scots to a single point in the sixth, but relinquished the lead in the seventh when they gave up a steal of two.

Hitting against four Scottish stones, Gushue's shooter rolled wide to give up the deuce.

Gushue's runback double takeout salvaged a point in the fifth for a 5-3 lead.

Gushue drew down in front of a Scottish counter behind a guard in the fourth, which forced Mouat to draw for one.

Gushue squeaked his final stone by Canadian counter on a hit for two and a 4-2 lead after three ends.

Canada had hammer to start the game and the two teams traded deuces in the first two ends.

Hard-fought win

Earlier Saturday, the defending champions were up 5-1 on Russia after four ends, but Timofeev's foursome fought back to even the score in the seventh.

Gushue scored two in the eighth and held Timofeev to a point in the ninth to lead 7-6 coming home with hammer. The Canadian skip didn't throw his final stone because Timofeev's draw was short of the rings.

Canada opens men's curling worlds with a win over Russia

7 years ago
Duration 1:03
Brad Gushue's Canadian rink survived a scare to beat the Russian team 7-6 at the men's curling world championship in Las Vegas, Nevada

"The first four ends they didn't play very well and I thought we played pretty good," Gushue said. "During the middle of the game, the ice changed and they picked up on it way faster than us.

"I struggled to get the broom in the right spot for just about everybody. We threw a lot of good rocks that we didn't get good results out of. I have to chalk it up to not being familiar with the ice.

"A couple of games under our belt, obviously those mistakes are going to go away."