NISKU, Alta. — It’s always an entertaining battle between Canada’s Team Brad Gushue and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin, and the latest chapter Thursday night at the Co-op Canadian Open lived up to its main-event billing.
Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L., emerged victorious this time with a thrilling 5-4 win and qualified for the playoffs with a 3-0 record and a game in hand.
Gushue, of St. John's, N.L., emerged victorious this time with a thrilling 5-4 win to secure a spot in the playoffs with a 3-0 record and a game in hand.
"It’s nice you’re in the playoffs because you never know against whoever you play," Gushue said. "If we went into tomorrow 2-1 and we lose, we probably fall into a tiebreaker, you never know.
"To get that spot in the playoffs is nice and now we can try and go out and win tomorrow and then secure hammer in the first game, which is important when you play teams as strong as we do here at the Slams."
The Silent Ice Center crowd was anything but silent as they roared whenever a big shot was made, which appeared to come frequently from both sides.
"Same as last night, I thought the crowd was great," Gushue said. "Both teams made a lot of really great doubles and big-weight shots, which the fans seemed to like. I think they had to be entertained by that game."
It was a tight battle right out of the gate. Gushue opened with the hammer but was forced to hit for just a single in the second end to open the scoring. Edin blanked back-to-back ends as Gushue maintained the 1-0 lead into the fourth-end break.
After Gushue pulled off an amazing angle raise takeout to sit shot rock buried, Edin attempted a double runback to possibly score three points but misfired and gave up a steal instead to fall behind 2-0.
The reigning world champion Edin regrouped in six and tapped for two points to tie it up.
Edin's first skip stone in the seventh hit and rolled into the right spot for Gushue to bop the pile and pull off a triple takeout to lie two. The 15-time Grand Slam title winner Gushue capitalized again as Edin rolled deep on his last and a come-around tap scored three key points to lead 5-2.
"It feels great," Gushue said. "I think we were a little fortunate. I thought we got outplayed certainly in the second half of the game. The first half, it seemed lots of rocks in play but by the end of it a bunch of doubles were made and we got some blanks. In the second half, I felt like they were really controlling it and a big turnaround in the fifth end when I made the angle raise. It looked like they were going to score three or four and we got away with a steal there.
"Even in the seventh end, a big mistake on Nik’s first. I’m surprised he played the shot he did and left us a shot to lie two, which we made. Probably a little bit more on their mistakes than our execution."
Still, Edin held the hammer coming home and wasn't going to concede defeat. With the rocks lined up in a column, Edin threw a heater that would have been a great shot for two, however, he needed three to send it into an extra end and his shooter spilled out.
"I don’t think it was there for three," Gushue said. "We wanted to let that one a little bit shorter of where I did ... for us to feel a little bit more secure in where we were but you never know with Nik. Sometimes how hard he can throw it and how accurate he may have been able to make it, but I don’t think the angles were there to allow him to make, so we got away with it."
Edin, who defeated Gushue in the world championship final last season, now holds a 2-1 record.
Elsewhere in Draw 12, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte (3-0) also clinched a playoff spot with a 6-2 victory over Canada’s Team Reid Carruthers (0-3).
Canada’s Team Kevin Koe (1-2) claimed its first win of the week to stay in the mix with a 5-3 decision against Switzerland’s Team Michael Brunner (0-3).
Scotland’s Team James Craik downed Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz by an 8-2 score. Craik improved to a 1-2 record with Retornaz at 2-1.
UP NEXT
Round-robin play wraps up Friday with four draws on tap starting at 10:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. MT.
Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ resumes at 2 p.m. ET / noon MT.
NOTES
The Co-op Canadian Open is the second Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … The top eight teams advance to the playoffs. If necessary, one tiebreaker draw will be played Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals on tap Sunday.
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