Gushue falls to Sweden but locks up playoff berth at men's curling worlds, spot at Olympic trials in 2025
Newfoundland-based rink ends Thursday 8-2 at Switzerland tournament
Brad Gushue's win streak is over at five games after Canada lost 6-5 to Sweden's Niklas Edin at the world men's curling championship on Thursday.
Gushue and his St. John's, N.L., team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker fell to 8-2 and were in second place in the 13-team standings. Scotland was also at 8-2, but Canada beat Bruce Mouat's team earlier in the tournament and holds the tiebreaker.
Earlier Thursday, Gushue clinched a playoff spot with a 7-4 win over Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway.
Edin, a six-time champion, sits in first with a perfect 10-0 record after beating Canada and securing a 6-4 win over the United States (5-5) in the morning draw.
Sweden started with hammer and blanked the first end. Edin went up 3-0 in the second when Canada could only remove one of three Swedish stones with an angle raise, allowing Edin to make a draw for three.
"Just a terrible second end where we didn't make any shots and gave them three and then trying to come back on that ice surface is tough," Gushue said. "Niklas was playing easy shots, and we were playing tough shots on ice that frosty, so it was tough to make. It's unfortunate that the ice got as challenging as it did, but we can't give up three early."
WATCH | Sweden halts Gushue, Canada's win streak:
Canada scored a single in the third end and had a chance to steal in the fourth, but Edin fended it off with a pinpoint throw on the button with Canada sitting two to score a single.
Edin increased his lead to 6-2 with a single in the eighth end. Canada scored a double in the ninth and a single in the 10th to fall just short of forcing extra ends.
"The finesse shots were incredibly difficult," Gushue said. "Nik made an incredible shot in the fourth. To make that good of a finesse shot on this kind of ice is spectacular.
In other Draw 17 games on Thursday, Scotland qualified for the playoffs with an 8-7 win over Switzerland (6-4), the Netherlands (3-7) earned an 8-5 victory over Czechia (4-7) and South Korea (2-9) beat New Zealand (0-10) 5-2.
Gushue's squad wraps up round-robin play Friday against Japan and Switzerland.
Scotland has a chance to finish first, but needs to win its two remaining matches Friday while the Swedes lose both of theirs. Scotland and Sweden play each other in the final round-robin draw.
The top six teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two seeds advancing directly to the semifinal. The medal games will be held on Sunday.
"We want to get into those semifinals," Nichols said. "You want to avoid that qualification game. We had to go through it last year, and it's a ton of pressure because you know if you're in it, you're going to be playing a really tough team. It would be nice to move ourselves one step forward, so we still have work to do."
WATCH | Canada clinches playoff berth with win vs. Norway:
Canada led 4-2 after four ends against Norway, thanks to deuces in both the second and fourth, and then added singles in the sixth, seventh and ninth ends.
Gushue's squad had a 93 per cent shooting-accuracy game against Norway (4-6), one of the better efforts of the week, but the skip believes there's still a higher gear to achieve.
"It was better than last night but not as sharp as we can be," Gushue said. "We still had a couple of sloppy misses and sloppy shots that against a team like Niklas tonight or another top team, we may not get away with it."
Gushue won world gold in 2017 at Edmonton but has settled for silver on three occasions since, including last year in Ottawa.
