EDMONTON - Canada's Brad Gushue opened the Ford world men's curling championship with a 7-5 victory over Peter de Cruz of Switzerland on Saturday at the Northlands Coliseum.
Gushue took control of the back-and-forth game when Swiss fourth Benoit Schwarz missed his final shot in the seventh end. The St. John's skip had hammer and delivered a draw to score three.
This is the first appearance at this event for Gushue's team of vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker. They earned the berth by beating Kevin Koe last month in the Tim Hortons Brier final.
The Swiss team was aggressive at the start and it nearly paid off. Schwarz had a chance to score four in the opening end but he rubbed a Canada guard and settled for a deuce.
He was thin on a takeout attempt in the second end and left a Canada stone on the 12-foot ring. A Gushue draw gave Canada a pair to pull even.
After a blank, Gushue buried two stones and forced Schwarz to draw the four-foot for a single. With a load of rocks in play in the fifth, a Gushue in-off gave him one point and a 3-3 tie.
