Canada’s Brad Gushue didn’t mince words after settling for silver on Sunday at the world men’s curling championship.
“Just the worst ice I’ve ever curled on in a major championship,” he said. “I’ve played at some curling clubs that were poor. But not in a world championship.”
Gushue dropped an 8-6 decision to Sweden’s Niklas Edin in a final where precision shotmaking was difficult. An unpredictable match swung Edin’s way when Gushue nosed a blank attempt in the ninth end.
That gave the Swedes hammer in a tied game and they scored a pair in the 10th for their fourth consecutive world title.
“That game was very tough, difficult conditions to play on,” said Edin. “So I’m really happy that we could fight as hard as we did.”
Gushue stated there were two distinct ridges on the ice in his semifinal win a day earlier. When he arrived for pre-game practice Sunday, he noticed four ridges on the sheet.
“When I went out and felt it, I thought, ‘Wow. We’re in for it,”‘ he said.
Gushue and his St. John’s-based team of Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker opened the game with hammer but were forced to a single.
Buoyed by a vocal partisan crowd of about 1,000 spectators, the Canadians stole a pair in the second end and were building towards a force in the third when the game turned.
Gushue raised his arms in the air in incredulity when his stone hit a ridge near the far hogline and moved nine or 10 inches the wrong way.
“It really was shock,” Gushue said of his reaction. “Pardon my language, but what the [expletive] just happened?”
Sweden took advantage with a deuce and followed with a steal to tie the game.
“Every shot that we threw was a guess,” Gushue said. “You had to guess at what it was going to do and what ridge it was going to hit.”
Edin, who earned his first Olympic gold this season, kept the pressure on. He forced Gushue to draw for one in the fifth end and scored two in the sixth after Gushue could only clear one stone on a double-takeout attempt.
“The ice was just so bad that it became a coin toss on every rock,” Gushue said. “Unfortunately it came up heads for Niklas a little bit more than it did for us.”
Canada’s chances of a 10th-end steal were slim but a hogged Walker stone put things into longshot mode.
Gushue, who threw a game-low 62 per cent, said the ice conditions impacted both of his rocks with the game on the line.
A come-around attempt curled “dramatically” after hitting a ridge but was still in a good spot, he said. For his final throw, Gushue tried to draw around two Swedish stones on the top of the four-foot ring.
He said the rock got on the wrong side of a ridge and then ran straight.
“It’s embarrassing for a player of my calibre to see two shots that far off when I’m really only taking six inches different ice,” Gushue said. “That’s hard to swallow. You feel like an idiot even though you threw a good rock.” It was Edin’s sixth career world title. He also beat Gushue in the Olympic semifinal in Beijing.
