Gushue into Semifinal Saturday
The shootout in Schaffhausen has come down to a predictable final four, with an additional two playoff teams earning kudos for their performance.
On Saturday, defending champions Scotland upended the United States 8-4 and Italy dominated Germany 8-3 in the first round of the playoffs.
Bruce Mouat’s Scottish four started with a deuce and added a three-count for a 5-2 lead at the break. Another pair from John Shuster’s USA closed the gap to 5-4 but after two blanked ends the Scots grabbed a second three and it was all over.
Shuster’s crew had an up and down week, but rallied to put together three must-wins in a row to claim their playoff spot.
Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz had edged Italy’s Joel Retornaz 8-7 in an extra end near the end of the round robin, with a final win over hosts Switzerland confirming an excellent week. Unfortunately the Germans couldn’t come untracked against the No. 1-ranked team in the world on Saturday, dropping three straight steals in the middle ends to go home in fifth place.
Scotland now moves on to a semifinal battle with Canada’s Brad Gushue, while Italy is set to face first-place Team Sweden skipped by Niklas Edin.
Edin ran out to an immaculate 11-0 won/loss record before taking the last round robin match off—perhaps resting an ailment that might require yet another off-season surgery. With Swedish alternate Daniel Magnusson in the lineup, the Swedes lost that final tilt 8-6 to Scotland to finish 11-1.
Edin defeated Italy 7-5 earlier in the week. The Italians wobbled a bit throughout their week but finished with an 8-4 mark.
Canada finished 8-2 after a 6-5 loss to Edin in their showdown on Thursday. They defeated Scotland 8-4 on day two, nearly a week ago.
The semifinals take place at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, with the bronze and gold medal games set for early starts on Sunday.
“We have no idea what the ice conditions are going to be like, what each team is going to be able to do in those conditions, and who will handle it best,” said Gushue after the round robin. “This is a different experience.
“This isn’t just your traditional curling where you’re trying to place rocks. You really have to manage the ice and the paths, and you need a little bit of luck. There are a lot more variables out there.”
Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller is certain to study his team’s week. The hosts won five games in a row and sat comfortably at 6-2 until four consecutive losses—to Italy, Scotland, Germany and Canada—wrecked their playoff hopes.
Following seventh-place Switzerland were the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Norway, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.