By Canadian Press

Canada’s Gushue secures semifinal berth with victory over Scotland at world playdowns

Apr 8, 2022 | 1:43 PM

LAS VEGAS — Canada’s Brad Gushue beat Scotland’s Kyle Waddell 8-6 on Friday to secure a semifinal berth at the world men’s curling championship.

The St. John’s-based team of Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker scored a deuce in the 10th end when Scottish fourth Ross Paterson flashed his last stone between two Canadian rocks.

Gushue, who had hammer, said it was a nice break because draw weight changed during the game.

“We got a few flat spots and it kind of junked up,” Gushue said. “If we had to draw the four-foot in the last end, it would have been a bit of a guess and you don’t really want that.

“Fortunately we played a really strong 10th end and didn’t have to throw the last one.”

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Canada leads the 13-team round-robin standings at 9-2 while Scotland fell to 6-5. Sweden’s Niklas Edin (8-3), who defeated Canada earlier in the competition, was idle for the morning draw at the Orleans Arena.

Like the second-place Swedes, Italy’s Joel Retornaz (7-4) and Korey Dropkin of the United States (7-4) have also secured playoff spots.

Germany’s Sixten Totzek, Scotland and Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller were tied in fifth place at 6-5 while South Korea’s Soo-Hyuk Kim was 5-5 with two draws to play.

The top two seeds earn berths in Saturday’s semifinals while the other four playoff teams will meet in qualification games to join them.

In other early games, Italy defeated Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell 9-6, Germany dumped Switzerland 10-3 and the Americans topped Finland’s Kalle Kiiskinen 7-2.

Canada will close out its round-robin schedule in the evening against Denmark’s Tobias Thune.

Gushue’s lone world title came in 2017 at Edmonton. Edin, a five-time world champ, has won this event the last three times it has been played.

Medal games are scheduled for Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2022.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press