OTTAWA — Brad Gushue’s busy start to round-robin play was bookended by a run of split shifts at the world men’s curling championship.
His Canadian team fought through the inconsistent timing to qualify for the playoffs at TD Place. The St. John’s, N.L.-based side will enter weekend play on a roll after a pair of victories Friday.
“When I looked at our schedule it was kind of, ‘Who did I piss off at the World Curling Federation?’,” Gushue joked. “We started off (playing) four of the first five draws and then we finished with mornings and nights for three days in a row.
“I was like, ‘Whoa, this is tough.'”
Gushue, vice Mark Nichols, second E.J. Harnden and lead Geoff Walker tuned up for the playoffs on Friday morning with a 9-5 victory over Turkey’s Ugurcan Karagoz.
Canada (9-3) wrapped up its round-robin schedule in the evening with an 8-5 win over defending champ Niklas Edin of Sweden (9-3) in a rematch of last year’s final.
Gushue scored four points in the fifth end and made a hit for three in the seventh that essentially put it away.
The teams will square off again Saturday in a qualification game. Gushue will have hammer as the No. 4 seed.
Top-seeded Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland (11-1) and No. 2 Bruce Mouat of Scotland (10-2) earned direct berths to the semifinals.
Italy’s Joel Retornaz (8-4) secured the sixth and final seed Friday morning with a 12-5 win over Japan’s Riku Yanagisawa. Italy will face No. 3 Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway (10-2) in the other qualification game.
The qualification winners will advance to the semifinals. Medal games are scheduled for Sunday.
The Turkish side — which made its world men’s debut — hung with the host team for a few ends before Gushue pulled away by scoring four points in the fifth end.
After a seventh-end deuce put the game out of reach, Canadian alternate Ryan Harnden came in to make a couple throws. Turkey conceded after scoring a single in the eighth.
Gushue has taken on top contenders in showcase evening games when viewership numbers are highest. He played Italy and Norway on the first two nights and took on the U.S., Scotland and Sweden over the last three evenings.
The World Curling Federation uses a numbered draw for the event. The “host committee and local broadcasters have a say in the final draw,” a WCF media officer said in an email.
Gushue said his team has made some execution and technical errors at times throughout the week.
“It has been a challenge for us and it has showed a few of the areas that we need to work on going forward,” he said. “But there’s still opportunity. And even with some of the things that we’re seeing, we’re still capable of winning.
“We’ve just got to make our shots and zero in and eliminate those big misses.”
Non-playoff teams included Japan (5-7), the United States (5-7), Germany (4-8), the Czech Republic (3-9), Turkey (2-10), New Zealand (1-11) and South Korea (1-11).
Gushue’s lone world title came in 2017 at Edmonton. Edin, the reigning Olympic champion, has won four straight world titles and six overall.
Kerri Einarson skipped Canada to a bronze medal at the women’s world curling championship last month in Sandviken, Sweden.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2023.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.
Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.
“Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
The 33-year-old from Sweden was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.
Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
