Canada’s Team Gushue overcomes United States in North American battle at Pan Continentals

LACOMBE, Alta. — Tuesday’s slate of games for Team Gushue at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships was going to be tough. Something had to give, with the two undefeated North American teams in the men’s field set to collide during the morning draw.

While Canada’s performance against Team John Shuster of the United States (3-1) wasn’t picture-perfect, skip Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker made the shots when it mattered most late in the game to eke out the 7-5 win and improve to 4-0 at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.

Gushue’s most crucial shot was Canada’s last in the 10th end. Leading by one but without hammer, the Canadians made a hit-and-roll behind cover to sit one. The Americans gifted Canada the opportunity after being wide on a freeze attempt that would have extinguished Canada’s hopes of being victorious. Shuster had a difficult double takeout to score but missed.

“With the exception of that last end, I thought we played pretty good. That was our first time on that sheet, so you’re still learning the ice,” said Nichols. “But we definitely gave them the opportunity to win that game, and Brad made a great shot on his last one. Luckily for us, John had a really tough shot on his last one and wasn’t able to make it.”

Team Canada’s support team includes alternate Adam Casey, coach Jeff Hoffart and national coach Jeff Stoughton.

It was not a typical first end, with the blank being out of the question while the front ends were throwing. While the majority of rocks were in play, the Americans huddled three in the four-foot and put Gushue in a challenging position on his final shot of the end. The Canadians played around the horn to roll up into the four-foot, scoring one and coming out of the end with a single.

“I threw a really good rock on my first one, and I called for the carve and we carved it. Then we just feather-tick the guard, and I look like an idiot. I felt like an idiot. So I knew I had to make the last one after that,” Gushue said of the tone-setting opening end with the highlight-reel shot.

With the game tied at the fifth-end break, the Americans stole a single point in the sixth to regain the lead. Team Gushue attempted to pick out an American stone to score but missed the target. It’s one of the few shots Gushue wished he could have back.

“I just set it that much more, an inch more, than I wanted and we went right by it. I’d like to have that one back. Other than that, I felt like I threw a lot of really good rocks and made some good shots,” Gushue said. “From a team perspective, we didn’t get a lot set up, and it felt like we were a little bit on our back foot. Every end it didn’t feel like we were ahead coming into the last stones.”

A tightly packed house in the seventh enabled Canada to throw away its final shot and score two to take the lead by a single point again. The teams exchanged singles in the eighth and ninth end, putting the Americans down one with hammer in the 10th end. 

“That was our first 10-end game and it’s nice to feel that pressure,” said Nichols. “We’ve got to make those shots at the end of the game, put pressure on the other team and not the other way around or give them breaks. We’ve got things to clean up, but it’s a win and we’re moving on to tonight.”

Team Gushue’s second game of the day is at 7 p.m. (all times Mountain) tonight against Japan’s Team Shinya Abe (3-1), which lost its first game of the event this morning in a 5-4 loss to China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (4-0).

In other men’s action, Austalia’s Team Hugh Milikin (1-3) earned its first win at the event with an 11-2 victory over Team Ken Hsu of Chinese Taipei (0-4), as did New Zealand’s Team Anton Hood (1-3) with a 9-1 win over South Korea’s Team Jaebeom Lee (0-4). 

In women’s action, Canada’s Team Rachel Homan (3-0) will play its lone game of the day against New Zealand’s Team Chelsea Suddens (1-2) at 2 p.m.

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