Canada's Brad Gushue, throws a rock, during the men's curling match against Switzerland, at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing.Nariman El-Mofty/The Associated Press
After an unexpected off-game from Brad Gushue led to a rare losing streak for the Canadian men’s curling team, it was time to forget about the pebbled ice for a while.
The players had a quick debrief after a Saturday loss to Sweden before sitting down to play video games for a couple hours in the evening.
PlayStation’s “F1″ was the game of choice for Gushue and second Brett Gallant.
“Brett’s Lewis (Hamilton) and I’m Max (Verstappen),” Gushue said with a laugh. “So it’s a good battle.”
Looking refreshed and energized, Gushue’s side was back in form for their return to the Ice Cube on Sunday morning. Canada took an early lead and never looked back in a confident 10-5 win over American John Shuster.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost two in a row,” Gushue said. “We were itching to get back out on the ice and get a win.”
A four-point steal in the second end gave Canada full control.
Shuster, the defending Olympic champion, missed a runback and had his double-takeout attempt roll out to stake the Canadians to the big early lead.
Both teams made substitutions after the fifth-end break with Gushue up 7-1. The Americans scored three in the sixth end but Canada iced the win with a pair in the ninth end.
“I felt a whole lot more comfortable out there,” Gushue said. “I didn’t throw the rock any different but we got better results today.”
Gushue threw just 57 per cent in a 7-4 loss to Niklas Edin a day earlier. The 2006 Olympic champ finished at 94 per cent on Sunday.
Canada threw 91 per cent overall to 76 per cent for the Americans.
“They have a huge belief in each other – even after a tough game – that they’re going to come out and play well again,” said Canada alternate Marc Kennedy. “You saw no doubt in them today and that’s what we’re going to have to see.”
With the game seemingly in hand, Kennedy came in as a substitute for second Brett Gallant.
Kennedy, who won Olympic gold in 2010 and returned to the Games in 2018, was not expecting to see his first game action of the competition.
The team decided to make the switch when Kennedy was in the locker-room area to get some granola bars for Gallant.
“When I came back out he said, ‘You’re in,’” Kennedy said.
Normally a third for Team Brad Jacobs, Kennedy served as an assistant coach for Canada’s mixed doubles team here before settling into the fifth role.
He ran on the spot for “about five seconds,” did a quick stretch and was ready to go.
“(I’m) a little sore but hey, it’s the Olympics right? So who cares, I can rest later,” Kennedy said with a smile. “It’s all good.”
The Americans had a much better second half.
Early handshakes were postponed after the three-ender. Shuster then forced Gushue to a single in the seventh end and made a draw against three in the eighth.
A takeout for two iced the victory for the Canadians, who improved to 3-2.
Sweden held off Norway’s Steffen Walstad 6-4 to remain unbeaten at 5-0. Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat edged China’s Xiuyue Ma 7-6 and Russia’s Sergey Glukhov defeated Italy’s Joel Retornaz 10-7.
Great Britain moved into a second-place tie with Switzerland at 3-1. Canada was tied in fourth place with Russia.
The Americans fell into a sixth-place tie with China and Russia at 2-3.
The top four teams will make the semi-finals.
Canada’s Jennifer Jones was scheduled to play Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni in women’s round-robin play later Sunday.