Eight Ends: Gushue jumps out of the gate at world championship
Canada’s Brad Gushue sits atop of the table in the opening stages of the world men’s curling championship.
Gushue is the lone undefeated skip with a 3-0 record through six draws of round-robin action on day three in Edmonton.
This week’s Eight Ends leads with how Gushue made it the top of the leaderboard and some other emerging storylines from the worlds.
1st End: Gushue’s road to 3-0
Canada’s record remains perfect even if their play wasn’t perfect to start. Inconsistent ice conditions in their first game Saturday against Team Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, made it a tricky opener and things turned frosty late in the match. Fortunately for Gushue, a few costly mistakes from Swiss fourth Benoit Schwarz tipped the scales in Canada’s favour during the sketchy 7-5 win.
Canada was in complete control from the opening frame during game two Sunday morning against Russia. Gushue counted a deuce in the first and stole four in the second when Alexey Stukalskiy wrecked on guards with both of his skip shots that all but put the game out of reach early. Stukalskiy shook after only six ends with Gushue winning in an 11-3 thrashing. That also gave the Canadian side some extra time to rest ahead of their evening heavyweight tilt against two-time world champ Niklas Edin of Sweden in a battle of the two top teams on the World Curling Tour’s year-to-date standings.
Edin, ranked No. 1, opened the see-saw affair with the hammer. Gushue kept things tight matching pairs of points with Edin to keep the score tied 4-4 through six ends. Things slipped away in the second half with Edin missing his last in seven to settle for a single and then Gushue pulled away with another pair in eight and a steal of two in nine. Gushue left Edin nowhere to hide in the 10th to run him out of rocks in the 8-6 victory.
The St. John’s, N.L., native Gushue faces a 1-2 punch Monday taking on Scotland’s David Murdoch during the afternoon draw followed by American John Shuster in the evening. It’s a tough task, but if Gushue gets through Monday with his undefeated record still intact, it could be clear sailing through to the playoffs.
Preliminary play continues through to Thursday with the top four teams advancing.
2nd End: What’s the deal with Russia?
It’s been an odd tournament already for Team Russia.
Alexey Timofeev skipped the team to a promising fourth-place finish at the European Championship, but, Stukalskiy was the one calling the shots to open the worlds.
With a pair of routs to start — a 9-2 loss to Shuster followed by the aforementioned 11-3 thumping at the hands of Gushue — the team quickly hit the panic switch returning skip duties to Timofeev with Stukalskiy dropping down to vice.
That didn’t stop their woes falling to China’s Rui Liu 9-6 Sunday evening. If there was a silver lining at least they didn’t end up shaking hands after only six like their previous two games and kept pace until Liu scored four in the eighth end. It’s not a huge leap forward, but it’s a step in the right direction at least.
3rd End: Swiss can’t afford to miss
De Cruz bounced back from the loss to Gushue winning three straight over the likes of Shuster, Norway’s Steffen Walstad and Germany’s Alexander Baumann to sit in second place, tied with Sweden.
Switzerland needs a strong showing at the worlds, after compatriot Sven Michel finished a disappointing ninth last year, in order to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Qualification is based on last year’s worlds standings plus this year’s results to determine the top seven teams (South Korea received an auto-berth as the host nation). Two more teams will be added through an additional qualification event later this year, although that’s a route countries will like to avoid if possible.
Right now Canada is first with 14 points thanks to Kevin Koe’s championship win last year. Denmark is second with 12, however, they’ll receiver zero here as Rasmus Stjerne had a lacklustre performance at the European Championship and did not qualify for the worlds.
As you can see in the table below, Switzerland will need to leapfrog two spots in order to secure a direct entry.
* – already qualified as host nation
4th End: Other observations from worlds
– Edin also rebounded from his loss to Gushue scoring four in the ninth end during an 8-6 victory over Walstad on Monday morning. Sweden is tied for second place in the standings with Switzerland at 3-1.
– Japan’s Yusuke Morozmi is right behind them at 2-1 followed by the logjam at 2-2 with Walstad, Murdoch, Shuster, China’s Rui Liu and Italy’s Joel Retornaz. Business will surely pick up among that group soon.
– Netherlands’ Jaap van Dorp started behind the 8-ball at the bottom of the table tied with Russia at 0-3. It’s just the second time Netherlands has competed at the world men’s event.
5th End: Savill joins Team Carruthers
Team Carruthers added a secret weapon to its lineup Friday.
Carruthers announced two-time world champion Craig Savill has joined his Winnipeg-based club as an alternate/adviser.
Carruthers captured the Canada Cup this past December to secure his spot in the Olympic Trials, which will take place at the end of the year in Savill’s hometown of Ottawa.
It’s a smart pickup for Carruthers as Savill, a winner of 12 Grand Slam titles, brings a wealth of talent and knowledge that he can surely rely on.
6th End: Flaxey wins in Perth
Alli Flaxey picked up her second tour title of the season capturing the CCT City of Perth Ladies International.
Flaxey, of Caledon, Ont., defeated Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 5-3 in Sunday’s final in Perth, Scotland.
Every point earned on tour is critical now towards the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) for Olympic Trials qualification with only a couple events remaining on the schedule this season. A few teams needed to bring in spares for the event to participate. Mary-Anne Arsenault played with Team Carey, Andrea Crawford filled in on Team Fleury and Carly Howard subbed on Team Middaugh.
Meanwhile, Team Tirinzoni managed to make it to the championship game sans spare. Just the trio of Tirinzoni, second Esther Neuenschwander and lead Marlene Albrecht played with third Manuela Siegrist still out due to a knee injury.
Cathy Overton-Clapham will spare with Team Tirinzoni next week at the WestJet Players’ Championship, a combination that has resulted in two runner-up finishes already on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling circuit this season.
7th End: WestJet Players’ Championship on horizon
It’s just one week until the WestJet Players’ Championship running April 11-16 at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.
Both Canadian champions will be in action on opening night for the crown jewel Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event with Gushue set to take on Brendan Bottcher and Rachel Homan facing Bingyu Wang (click here for the full draw schedule).
Tickets are still available, click here for more information.
That wraps up this week’s news so let’s “shake hands” an end early.