LACOMBE, Alta. — Canada could not get the upper hand on its southern neighbours at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships. Team Brad Gushue lost 10-8 to Team John Shuster of the United States in the men’s bronze-medal game.
The loss marks the first time the Canadian men’s team will not reach the podium at this event. Team Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L., won gold at the past two editions.
The Americans’ win at Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex also marks the first time Team Shuster has beaten Team Gushue since 2019. The past five occasions have gone in Gushue’s favour at events such as the Olympic Winter Games, the world men’s championship and the Pan Continentals.
Down by one and without hammer in the 10th end, Canada did its best to set up a steal. However, the Americans had a draw to the four-foot for the win.
“I feel a whole lot better about this loss than yesterday (loss to Japan in the semifinals), because I felt like we threw a lot of good rocks. We didn’t get the results that we probably deserved for some of our throws, but they played well and credit to them. They came out and played a strong game against us,” Gushue said.
It is a disappointing result for skip Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey, coach Jeff Hoffart and national coach Jeff Stoughton. However, there were still positives to come out of the week for the team’s new lineup featuring Bottcher at second, and it lays a foundation on which the team aims to improve.
“It was a really good first event,” Bottcher said. “I think we have a few things we can build on, and I’m looking forward to the next one.
“I thought the team dynamic was great out of the gate. We had a lot of fun throughout the course this week, which showed out on the ice. We put together a lot of really good games, so there’s lots of positives.”
Canada and the U.S.A. traded deuces in the opening part of the game until Team Shuster earned the upper hand in the fourth.
On Gushue’s first, Canada faced a pair of opposition counters in the four-foot. The Canadians attempted to run an American guard into the house to remove everything. However, it over-curled, and Canada only extracted one of the stones while also leaving a biter on the side of the 12-foot. That unfortunate error led to Team Shuster scoring three.
“The three-ender in four was obviously a big turnaround. We had a couple of mistakes on Geoff and Brendan’s rocks and then [Team Shuster] executed very well in that end. They made every shot just about perfect and we were a little unlucky on my runback that left that one biter. I made a decent roll on my last one, but needed to roll another half a rock,” Gushue said.
Team Gushue had its chance to respond in the fifth end, but only mustered a single. On Canada’s first skip stone, Gushue ran a Canadian rock into two American ones while spilling the shooter to the side of the 12-foot behind cover. Team Shuster jammed a double and Canada had a runback to score two, but rolled out on the attempt.
The teams continued exchanging pairs of points through the middle and into the game’s twilight. Anytime Canada attempted setting something up, the Americans countered with big-weight runs and takeouts to control and limit the damage.
Down by two in the ninth end, Canada was facing four Team Shuster stones sprawled across the tee line. Canada tried to lock something in to count, but all the U.S.A. had to do was blast away at anything Canada placed in the house. Canada was held to another single point heading into the 10th end.
The men’s gold-medal game between China’s Team Xiaoming Xu and Japan’s Team Shinya Abe is scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. (all times Mountain).
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan of Ottawa takes on South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim in the women’s gold-medal game. Team Gim is attempting to defend the championship it won last year, while Team Homan is seeking Canada’s first gold in women’s play.
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