SASKATOON, Sask. — Brad Gushue and his St. John’s rink closed out its 2018-19 curling season with the same result it has been accustomed to all year – reaching the playoffs, but coming up a bit short.
Gushue, Mark Nichols, Colton Lott and Geoff Walker suffered a 6-3 quarter-final loss to Alberta’s Kevin Koe in the Humpty’s Champions Cup in Saskatoon, Sask., Saturday, one day after beating the 2019 Tim Horton’s Brier champ 7-5.
Gushue entered the Champions Cup, the final event on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour, as the defending champion.
Lott was added to Team Gushue because its regular second, Brett Gallant, was in Norway playing in the world mixed doubles championship with Jocelyn Peterman.
Gushue, an 11-time Grand Slam champion, gave up three in the seventh end (Grand Slam games are eight ends).
Friday night, Gushue stole two points in the fifth end and another in the sixth to beat Koe.
Gushue opened the season with a championship in the Princess Auto Elite 10. But after that, it was two losses in finals (at the China Cup and Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic), two losses in semifinals and five setbacks in quarter-finals (including the Champions Cup).
At the 2019 Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon, Man., Team Gushue lost its ¾ Page playoff game to Brendan Bottcher’s Wild Card entry.
Gallant and Peter win silver at world mixed doubles
Meanwhile, in Stavanger, Norway, Gallant and Peterman — partners on the ice and in life — dropped a 6-5 decision to Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg and Oskar Eriksson in the gold-medal game
at the world mixed doubles championship.
Sweden had the hammer in the eighth end and drew to the button for the win.
“They played really well,” said Gallant to Curling Canada of Olympic gold-medallist Hasselborg and three-time world men’s champion Eriksson. “I, myself, couldn’t quite get the line on a few of my shots and gave them some openings.”
Earlier in the day, Peterman and Gallant defeated Olympic gold-medallist John Shuster of the United States and his partner Cory Christensen 9-5 in the semifinal game.
Canada has two silver medals at the worlds in the past three years after Joanne Courtney and Reid Carruthers reached the final in 2017.
