LACOMBE, Alta. — There’s a phrase about some of the certainties that come with life, and Canadian curling fans should add “Brad Gushue qualifying for the playoffs at the Pan Continentals” to that list.
Team Gushue (5-0) assured itself a spot in the final four at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships following a 7-5 win against Japan’s Team Shinya Abe (3-2) on Tuesday evening at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.
While the event is still in its infancy, it doesn’t detract from the 21-2 record Gushue has garnered since the inaugural event in 2022. It also doesn’t belittle that the team from St. John’s, N.L., is dialling in on the precision needed to top the podium come this Saturday’s gold-medal game.
That gold-medal game is one the Canadians – skip Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey, coach Jeff Hoffart and national coach Jeff Stoughton – will be in contention for after locking up a spot in the playoffs, which begin Thursday evening.
“Want want to get hammer throughout the playoffs. We also just want to get better and better and gel some more with this lineup,” said Gushue.
China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (4-1) and Team John Shuster of the United States (4-1) also qualified for the playoffs following their evening game against each other. The Americans came away with the 8-6 win.
The first half of Canada’s game against Japan was textbook, scoring two with and forcing without hammer. However, some of the shots required to get those results were exceptional.
In the fourth end, Team Gushue turned the composition around on its opponents in one shot. Facing three on Gushue’s first, Canada’s short raise triple takeout flipped the end around, and Canada counted three. Japan scored a point and held Canada to a single in the fifth end to trail 5-2.
“I wasn’t sure if the one on the left would stick there, but it came off just perfectly. I’m not used to playing that shot, and I don’t enjoy playing it, but it made me feel pretty good. It made me feel like some of those young guys out there throwing it hard and see what happens with four rocks scattering,” said Gushue. “It was a big turnaround too because it looked like a three (for Japan), though I think with my last two shots I was pretty confident I would make a double and cut them down to two.”
Japan crept back in the second half of the game. While Canada stole a single in the sixth, Japan scored one in the seventh and stole a point in the eighth. However, Canada scored one in the ninth and kept Japan to a single in the 10th end.
It’s been an excellent start to Bottcher’s tenure with Team Gushue, who is playing in his first event with his new team.
“I think he’s fitting in well, or likely better than I anticipated, to be honest. Out on the ice, he’s very positive, and he’s got a great attitude. He throws the rock really well and he’s adjusting on the sweeping, though he’s still good. He’s held some rocks that I wasn’t sure he would hold. He’s a good judge (of weight) too. He’s still coming off being a skip for his whole career but I still think he’s way ahead of where I thought he would be, so I’m thrilled with it,” Gushue said.
Bottcher is handily at the top of the field among all seconds with a 90.5 per cent shooting efficiency and over four percentage points ahead of the next best second in the field, New Zealand’s Ben Smith.
“The guys have just been great and they’ve made it pretty easy for me to slot into the team. The dynamic feels really good, which is nice. Obviously, there’s some learning that’s going to happen, but we’re playing well. We’re making lots of shots and I think we’re being a real cohesive team,” Bottcher said. “It’s a different role, but it’s a really important role. The top teams are just so good that you’ve got to make shots all the way through the lineup. If I can make my two as often as I can and be a real good teammate and help the guys behind me, I think that’s kind of my recipe, and so far, so good.”
In other men’s action, South Korea’s Team Jaebeom Lee (1-4) trounced Team Ken Hsu of Chinese Taipei (0-5) by a score of 19-1 and Australia’s Team Hugh Millikin (2-3) bested New Zealand’s Team Anton Hood (1-4) with an 8-6 win.
Team Gushue only has one game on Wednesday. The Canadians are on the ice Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. (all times Mountain), taking on Australia’s Team Millikin.
Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan (4-0) hopes to qualify for the playoffs on Wednesday with two games on the schedule. The first is a 9 a.m. game against South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim (4-0).
Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.
All games are being streamed live on The Curling Channel. CLICK HERE for details.
Ticket information for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.
