On Friday in the Pan Continental Curling Championships, Brad Gushue of Canada defeated Randie Shen of Chinese Taipei 11-3 to earn the top seed in the playoffs.
With round robin play approaching to an end, Gushue’s rink from St. John’s, N. L., leads the Americans (6-1), South Korea (6-1) and Japan (3-4) in the rankings.
On Saturday, the semifinal matchup between Canada (6-1) and Japan, winners of three straight, is scheduled.
“Japan has looked different (than it did earlier in the week) throughout the previous two of games, and they seem to be coming on strong. It will be a tremendously difficult game for us, Gushue said.
“I think we’re playing really well, and we’re in pretty good form.
Maintaining a high level of motivation in some of the last few games where we had enormous leads was difficult, but I tried to play as many difficult shots as I could to keep us interested, and we made a lot of them.
In the other semifinal, the United States will face South Korea.
Gushue’s rink defeats South Korea 11-3 in the Pan Continental Curling Championships. READ MORE
Canada scored four points across the first three ends to take the lead early.
After Chinese Taipei (2-5) scored twice in the fourth end, the Canadians notched a five-point fifth to seize complete control of the match.
After Chinese Taipei’s single in the sixth end, Canada’s double in the seventh end sealed the victory.
Gushue remarked, “We had a really excellent week for our draws. “When we look back at what we did at the worlds and the Olympics last time, we didn’t do very good.
As a result, we had a number of successful drawings this week and put several on the pin, which was rewarded with first place.
South Korea defeated Australia 9-4, the United States overcame Brazil 9-3, and Japan defeated New Zealand 9-5 in the remaining men’s matches.
Earlier, Canada’s Kerri Einarson broke open a close game with four points in the eighth end of a 9-3 victory over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa.
With her final stone, Gimli, Manitoba native Einarson made a runback to end the game.
With a steal of one in the ninth end, she sealed the match and improved to 6-1. Round-robin play ended with Japan behind 6-2.
Einarson said her team accomplished everything it took to recover after her rink’s rink suffered its first setback against the United States on Thursday.
We moved past that game, came out, and played our best, she said. “It’s not that it was a horrible game (Thursday); we just weren’t capitalizing on our opportunities. “ We came out with a strong game today after taking some time to regroup.
Seungyoun Ha of South Korea was to be the opponent for Einarson’s final round-robin match.
The contest, which goes on till Sunday, is a qualifier for the world championships later in the year.
In both the men’s and women’s categories, Canada has already qualified.
Gushue earns the top seed in the Pan Continental Curling Championships playoffs.
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