Canada’s Team Gushue earns top playoff seed at 2024 Pan Continental Championships

LACOMBE, Alta. — Even with a playoff spot under lock and key, there was no need for Canada’s Team Brad Gushue to ease up on Wednesday afternoon at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships. The men’s team from St. John’s, N.L., toppled Australia’s Team Hugh Millikin (2-4) by a score of 13-8 at the Gary Moe Auto Sportsplex in its lone game of the day.

The win keeps skip Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey, coach Jeff Hoffart and national coach Jeff Stoughton, undefeated at 6-0 with one game left in round-robin play.

As a bonus, a 5-4 South Korea win from Team Jaebeom Lee (2-5) against China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (4-2) means Canada has earned the top playoff seed and will have the hammer and choice of stones through the playoffs.

“It’s always nice to go into the playoffs that way. We’ve got one more game tomorrow so that’s what we’re going to focus on now. Hopefully we can go in undefeated, but we’re going to give it our best tomorrow either way,” said Hoffart, who is in his first year of coaching Team Gushue.

On Thursday morning, Gushue’s final game is against China at 9 a.m. (all times Mountain). 

Joining Canada in the men’s playoffs are China, Team John Shuster of the United States (5-1) and Japan’s Team Shinya Abe (4-2). Japan earned the final playoff spot Wednesday afternoon with a 9-1 win against New Zealand’s Team Anton Hood (1-5), while Team Shuster took control of second place in the standings after a 9-3 win against Team Ken Hsu of Chinese Taipei (0-6).

In Canada’s game against Australia, Team Gushue scored two in the first end to kick the high-scoring affair into gear. Australia replied in the second with fourth-rock thrower and mixed doubles Olympian Dean Hewitt making a draw to the four-foot for three. Team Gushue scored three in the third with a draw, but every time Canada tried to creep ahead of the Aussies, it found a way to counter. 

“I think with the amount of curl you never felt safe. If you had a rock top-eight you could bury around it so that usually leads to more rocks in play,” Gushue said. “There was always just a glimmer of hope for both teams that if you could make a good draw or a good freeze that you could set up an end. I think that just encouraged lots of rocks (in play).”

Tied seven apiece, Canada pulled away in the seventh end with a score of four against the Australian team led by Steve Johns at skip (Millikin was on the bench for this game as part of the team’s five-man rotation). On Australia’s last, Hewitt attempted a hit but feathered off a stone in the top-four foot, rolling his shooter away and knocking an Australian stone out of scoring position.

Australia would score a single in the eighth end, but Team Gushue put the game away in the ninth end thanks to an incredible double-raise double by Gushue, leading to a score of two and a concession from Australia.

While the teams competing in the playoffs are settled, there’s still a carrot at the end of the stick for non-playoff teams. The top four finishers, excluding Canada as hosts, earn berths to the 2025 BKT Tires World Men’s Curling Championship, scheduled for March 29-April 6 at Moose Jaw, Sask. Australia and South Korea will battle for that spot in tomorrow morning’s final round-robin draw.

The men’s semifinals commence on Thursday night at 7 p.m. with the winners advancing to the gold-medal game this Saturday at 10 a.m. and losers playing in the bronze-medal game on Friday at 2 p.m.

In women’s action, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan has qualified for the playoffs and ends the day with a 7 p.m. game against Mexico’s Team Adriana Camarena (1-4).

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.

This story will be posted in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr