The Canadian Press
Gregory Strong
EDMONTON–Canada’s Brad Gushue wanted to build on his team’s strong performance during the national playdowns in his first appearance at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.
His St. John’s rink has done just that over the first few days at the Northlands Coliseum.
“I think we’re in a little bit better form, to be quite honest,” Gushue said. “For this early, we’re certainly [playing well].
“As you guys saw at the Brier, we struggled the first five games,” he noted. “But here I think we’re building.
“I don’t think we’re firing on all cylinders yet but I certainly like where we are.”
The 2006 Olympic champ is off to a strong start at 5-0 after eight draws of round-robin play.
His top-ranked team dumped Scotland’s David Murdoch 8-2 yesterday afternoon, then beat American John Shuster by that same score last night.
Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz whipped Russia’s Alexey Stukalskiy 9-2 to move into a second-place tie with Sweden’s Niklas Edin at 4-1.
Italy and Japan are in a fourth-place tie with China’s Rui Liu and Norway’s Steffen Walstad at 3-2.
Murdoch and Shuster fell to 2-3 while Baumann was 1-4.
The Netherlands and Russia remained winless at 0-5 heading into play today.
Gushue was in control from the start against Murdoch, who won Olympic silver at the 2014 Sochi Games.
He opened with a deuce, then forced Murdoch to draw for one in the second end.
An open draw for two gave Gushue a 4-1 lead and he added another pair when Murdoch was heavy with his final throw in the fourth.
The teams exchanged singles before shaking hands after seven ends.
“I’m happy the game went the way it did,” Gushue said.
“It’s always nice to get a game where it doesn’t come down to the last rock.”
In the nightcap, Gushue opened with three points before giving up back-to-back singles.
A steal of three in the sixth end put the game out of reach.
“We’re not going to change our approach,” said third Mark Nichols. “We’ll just try to dial in a little bit more.
“We always play to give Brad the last rock in the last end,” he noted.
“If we’re tied up coming home, then we’re in a really good spot and that’s what we’re trying to do every game.”
Round-robin play continues through Thursday.
The Page playoffs begin Friday, with the medal games scheduled for Sunday.
Koe skipped Canada to a gold medal at last year’s world championship in Basel, Switzerland.
