LAS VEGAS — Brad Gushue’s curling team started to find its groove Monday in a 10-4 win over Italy to stay unbeaten at the world men’s curling championship.
Canada was alone atop the standings at 5-0 after its lone game Monday. Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker out of St. John’s, N.L., take on Germany (3-2) on Tuesday.
Four wins on opening weekend plumped Canada’s record, but the skip felt they were white-knuckle affairs compared to Monday’s decisive victory over the Italians.
“Comfort-level, it’s growing,” Gushue said. “I thought the ice was a fair bit better than it was in the first four games. We had better control of draw weight which allowed us to set up and score some multiple points.”
Canada counted two in the second end and three in the fourth to lead 5-2. After Gushue stole a combined three points in the seventh and eighth ends, Joel Retornaz conceded.
The world championship stones in Las Vegas are the World Curling Federation’s and were formerly used on the World Curling Tour.
The granite isn’t as lively as stones at last month’s Canadian men’s curling championship in Lethbridge, Alta., where Gushue and company won a fourth national title.
Gushue, Gallant and Walker played as a three-man team on the final weekend because Nichols had COVID-19.
The Orleans Arena ice was built and is maintained by USA Curling’s icemaker Shawn Olesen, and Canadian teams are less familiar with his product.
“These ice conditions, we’re not going to be able to play at the level that we played in Lethbridge or in Saskatoon at the (Olympic) trials, just because it’s not conducive,” Gushue said.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever get to a 10 out of 10. We’ve got to kind of accept that we’re going to have a few more misses. An 80 or 85 per cent game is pretty good out here, where in Lethbridge, you’re looking to curl 90 or 95 per cent.
“With those misses you want to try and limit the damage that you do. So far we’ve been doing a good job with that.”
The top six teams at the conclusion of the round robin Friday advance to the playoffs, with the top two earning semifinal byes.
Seeds three through six play off Saturday to join them in the semis that night. The medal games are Sunday.
Gushue and Retornaz skip two of three teams competing in the world championship on the heels of their participation in February’s Olympic Games.
Sweden’s Niklas Edin won gold, Gushue bronze and Retornaz went 3-6 in Beijing.
Five-time world champ Edin dropped two of his first four in Las Vegas. A 7-2 win over Finland in Monday’s late draw moved him into a five-team logjam for second at 3-2 with Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and the United States.
Scotland moved into the second-place group with a comeback 6-4 win over Germany in Monday’s late draw. Other late scores saw Switzerland beat the Czech Republic 9-5 and the U.S edge Norway 10-8.
Retornaz was the only skip in the field with shooting accuracy over 80 per cent heading into Monday’s game against Canada. His third Amos Mosaner won Olympic mixed doubles curling gold with Stefania Constantini.
But Nichols far outcurled Mosaner at the vice position 98 per cent to 73, which correspondingly gave Gushue easier shots and Retornaz low-percentage throws.
“The first four games, it felt like every shot I threw was down a new path and a tough shot,” Gushue said. “Today, they left me some easy ones and I was able to execute them, with the exception of one there in the fifth end.
“They’re an extremely talented team and they’ll be around at the end of the week. The first four games, all of them could have gone either way. We were fortunate to pull them out. Made some really nice shots in the last couple ends.
“I think that just comes through experience and the fact we’ve played in a bunch of big moments. We didn’t get caught up in kind of the nervousness you can get when you play in the 10th end of a world championship game. We executed well in those situations.”
Gushue won the 2017 world championship in Edmonton followed by a runner-up result the following year in Las Vegas.
His team was unable to compete in the 2020 world championship in Glasgow, Scotland, because it was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The Orleans Arena is adjacent to the hotel and casino with the site a kilometre and a half west of the Vegas strip.
Gushue felt his team didn’t get enough of a mental reprieve from the tournament environment four years ago staying at the Orleans, so he and his teammates are living off-site this time around.
“We got out of the fishbowl,” the skip said. “We’ve learned from that experience, and so far, it’s been a much better experience for us off the ice.
“I think we’re in a much better place, much more relaxed and can kind of get away from the game, which is nice, especially with the year that we’ve been through. It seems like we haven’t gotten away from the game in months.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2022.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
