Canada's Gushue drops bronze medal game to United States

LACOMBE, Alta. — Canada's Rachel Homan will play for gold at the Pan Continental curling championship after posting a 6-5 extra-end victory over China's Wang Rui in semifinal action Friday.

Homan didn't need to throw her final stone in the extra end after a last-gasp double takeout attempt by Wang only removed one Canadian stone.

Wang looked poise to score three in the 10th end and win the game in regulation, but Homan's outturn freeze forced China to make a draw for two and give Canada the hammer for the extra end.

"We stuck together," Homan said. "We definitely wanted some shots back, but honestly, we played a really good game. They (China) just played crazy good, so it was just one of our few mistakes here and there were a little bit more evident when they played so well."

Homan's Ottawa team, which includes vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes, will face defending champion South Korea in Saturday's final.

Canada defeated Eunji Gim and the Koreans 8-2 in round-robin play on Wednesday.

"I know that we’re going to see a better team than we saw earlier in the round robin," Homan said. "That wasn’t them, so I’m sure we’re going to get another game like we had in the semi here."

Later Friday, Canada's Brad Gushue lost 10-8 to American John Shuster in the men's bronze-medal game.

The loss marks the first time the Canadian men's team will not reach the podium at this event, with Gushue, from St. John's, N.L., having won gold at the past two editions. The Americans’ win also marks the first time Shuster has beaten Gushue since 2019.

Gushue was coming off an 8-4 semifinal loss Thursday to Japan's Shinya Abe, who will play for gold on Saturday against China's Xiaoming Xu.

"I feel a whole lot better about this loss than yesterday, because I felt like we threw a lot of good rocks," Gushue said. "We didn't get the results that we probably deserved for some of our throws, but they played well and credit to them.

"They came out and played a strong game against us."

Going down 9-7 after eight ends, Gushue's rink pulled within one in the ninth. Without hammer in the 10th and final end, Canada did its best to set up a steal. However, the Americans had a draw to the four-foot for the win.

The Canadians went 7-0 in round-robin play to lead all playoff qualifiers at the event while boasting a new lineup featuring Brendan Bottcher as second.

"It was a really good first event," Bottcher said. "I think we have a few things we can build on, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

"I thought the team dynamic was great out of the gate. We had a lot of fun throughout the course this week, which showed out on the ice. We put together a lot of really good games, so there's lots of positives."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.