The Canadian Press
Canada’s Brad Gushue will again play for gold at the world men’s curling championship.
Gushue and his St. John’s, N.L., team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker advanced to the championship final with a 9-4 semi-final win over Scotland’s Bruce Mouat on Saturday. The Scots qualified for the semi-final game with an 8-4 qualification win over the United States earlier Saturday.
Gushue will face Sweden’s Niklas Edin in the final Sunday. Edin, a six-time champion, earned a 5-3 semi-final victory over Italy on Saturday.
Gushue will appear in his fifth final in his fifth world championship appearance. However, he'll enter Sunday’s showdown having recorded just one victory, that coming at Edmonton in 2017.
“We just got to get a little better of a record in that game now, so we'll see how it goes,” he said. “To get to a world final is a big accomplishment, but I’m not too excited because I have played in four others.
“It’s about winning (Sunday) and playing a good game. The win is somewhat out of control because we don’t start with the hammer (versus Edin) but we'll have to give ourselves a chance and flip the hammer early.”
Two of Gushue’s championship losses have come at the hands of Edin, who finished atop the round robin standings with an 11-1 record while Gushue (10-2) was second. That earned Sweden and Canada direct entries to the semi-finals.
Mouat also finished 10-2 after handing Edin his only loss of the round robin, an 8-6 decision in the final draw. But Canada beat Scotland 8-4 earlier in the tournament to gain the tiebreaker.
Gushue took control of his semi-final contest with a steal of three in the sixth end for a 6-3 advantage. It came after Scotland forced Canada to take a single in the fifth following a steal of one in the fourth.
“I thought there was high-quality curling,” said Nichols. “There were a few half-shots and three-quarter shots, but they played strong, and it was definitely back-and-forth.
“Mistakes happen, and we’re fortunate it didn’t happen to us this time.”
Canada forced Scotland to take a single in the seventh before the Scots conceded in the eighth after a draw was light, allowing Canada to score three.
Gushue opened the scoring with two in the first end. But Scotland countered with two of its own in the second before going ahead in the fourth.
On Sunday, Gushue and Edin will meet in the final for the fourth time in the past seven events.
“We come into every event we play with the goal of being in that Sunday final. It’s nice to get one more crack at it, and we’ll enjoy it for sure,” Nichols said.