LAS VEGAS — The road to a second straight world curling championship got longer for Canada’s Brad Gushue with a 6-5 loss to Sweden’s Niklas Edin on Friday.
Gushue needs to win a quarterfinal Saturday morning to avoid elimination from medal contention and advance to the semifinals later in the day.
“We’ve got our work ahead of us,” the skip said.
With one game remaining in the preliminary round, Canada (8-3) couldn’t finish among the top two teams and get a bye to the semifinals.
Sweden and Scotland’s Bruce Mouat (10-1) earned the byes. The medal games are Sunday.
Canada will rank third regardless of the outcome against Germany (1-10) in the preliminary round’s finale Friday night.
The top six teams in pool play earn playoff berths instead of four under a new format this year.
Teams ranked third to sixth square off in quarterfinals, so Canada will face No. 6 on Saturday morning.
Norway’s Steffen Walstad (7-4) also qualified for the playoffs, while the fifth and sixth berths were still in play Friday.
Switzerland’s Marc Pfister (6-5), South Korea’s ChangMin Kim and Russia Alexey Timofeev (5-5) and Greg Persinger of the U.S. (5-6) were in the playoff hunt.
Canada lost back-to-back games for the first time in the tournament after falling 6-5 to the U.S. the previous evening.
Gushue, Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker from St. John’s, N.L., went undefeated to win last year’s world title in Edmonton.
Gushue beat Edin 4-2 in the final in Edmonton. Edin lost to John Shuster of the U.S. in February’s Olympic men’s final in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Swedes are master hitters capable of defending leads and forcing the opposition to score one when they don’t have last-rock advantage.
So when Edin scored three in the first with hammer, Canada was in trouble early. But Gushue stole two in the seventh to tie the game 4-4.
Still tied coming home, Edin drew against two Canadian stones for the win.
“We put some pressure on him in a number of ends,” Gushue said. “I thought we played well. I liked everything about it other than the start.
“I know we’re the best team in the world. It’s not a matter of feeling it. I knew we would outcurl them for nine. It’s just three is a lot to spot them.
“That extra point was big, but I felt we could grind back.”
Gushue and his teammates spent considerable time debating in the ninth whether to try the wide double takeout and keep hammer — score two for the win or one to force an extra end — but went with the safer draw for one.
The skip said he didn’t like his percentages on the double, or stealing in an extra end against a team like Edin’s.
“When I looked at the double, at first I thought I could make it 50 per cent of the time, but it was so thin I was probably in the neighbourhood of 30, at best 40,” Gushue explained.
“If it had been a rock deeper, I would have taken it on. I think my odds of making it go up 10 to 20 per cent and then I think it’s worth a try.”
Edin not only made a spectacular runback double in the first end, but his shooter stayed in the rings for the three-pointer.
“We were very patient to get to the point we were, but you can’t give up three in the first end,” Nichols said.
“I missed both my shots in the first end, give up three and we’re chasing the rest of the game.”
A pre-game draw the button determines who gets hammer in the first end of a game.
Canada ranks first overall in the tournament in average measurement, but the Swedes were a little tighter to the pin Friday.
“We hit the button twice and they hit the button better,” Gushue said.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press