LAS VEGAS — Canada’s Brad Gushue regained momentum just in time for a 7-6 win over Russia’s Alexey Timofeev to open the men’s world curling championship Saturday.
Canada was up 5-1 after four ends before the Russians rebounded and deadlocked the score by the seventh.
After scoring two in the eighth, the Canadians held Timofeev to a point in the ninth.
The Russian skip was short of the rings on an attempted draw around a guard with his final stone, so Gushue didn’t have to throw his last rock.
"The first four ends they didn’t play very well and I thought we played pretty good," Gushue said. "During the middle of the game, the ice changed and they picked up on it way faster than us.
"I struggled to get the broom in the right spot for just about everybody. We threw a lot of good rocks that we didn’t get good results out of. I have to chalk it up to not being familiar with the ice.
"A couple of games under our belt, obviously those mistakes are going to go away."
Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker out of the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. John’s N.L., went undefeated to win the world title last year in Edmonton.
They’re attempting to become just the fifth team to repeat and the first since Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey in 2002 and 2003.
Saskatchewan’s Ernie Richardson twice won back-to-back world titles (1959-60, 1962-63). Calgary’s Ron Northcott in 1968-69 and Winnipeg’s Don Duguid in 1970-71 also won two in a row.
Gushue was to face Scotland’s Bruce Mouat at night.
In other games, Niklas Edin of Sweden edged Germany’s Alexander Baumann 6-5.
South Korea’s Chang-min Kin stole two in the ninth and another point in the 10th for a 7-4 victory over Jaap Van Dorp of the Netherlands. China’s Dejia Zou downed Marc Pfister of Switzerland 6-5.
The Orleans Arena was the site of the international Continental Cup of Curling in 2014, 2016 and 2017, but Las Vegas is the host city of a world curling championship for the first time.
After opening ceremonies that included Elvis and Marilyn Monroe lookalikes, women clad in sparkly bikinis marching in the trophy, a military colour guard and the traditional bagpipes, the most southerly world curling championship to date got underway.
The temperature was 27 C outside the arena, but well-refrigerated inside for the first draw. The 8,000-seat arena was one-third full and liberally sprinkled with Canadian flags.
The World Curling Federation changed the championship format this year allowing six teams to make the playoff round instead of the previous four.
The top two teams after the preliminary round earn byes to the semifinals, while teams three to six meet in the quarterfinals. The medal games will be played April 8.
Timofeev, 27, threw third stones for Alexey Stukalskiy in last year’s world championship. The Russians went winless in Edmonton.
Gushue got the jump on Timofeev with a quick three-pointer in the opening end and a deuce in the fourth before momentum swung hard to the Russians.
They scored a deuce in the fifth and stole single points in the sixth and seventh ends.
A corner freeze behind a guard by Nichols in the eighth helped Gushue set up for two.
Timofeev tried a thin double takeout to clear two Canadian stones in the rings, but his shooter didn’t make contact with a second stone leaving Gushue the open hit for two.
Gushue had a hit for one against four Russian stones in the seventh and gave up a steal of one.
In the sixth, Gushue opted to play a double hit instead of a draw and gave the Russians a point.
"It goes back to familiarity with the ice and certainly middle of the week I’d play the draw through the hole there," the skip explained.
"To be honest, we were four to six inches away from making that shot. Obviously the broom wasn’t anywhere near where it should have been.
"It looks bad on TV that we missed a shot, but it was a good throw, threw the right weight, threw it at the broom, just had the broom in the wrong spot. That happened a lot in that game, particularly on my rocks."
