Brad Gushue (St. John's, NL) wins the Masters of Curling, defeating Niklas Edin (Karlstad, Sweden) 8-4. Gushue with Mark Nichols at third, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker on the front end take home the $30,000CDN first place cheque along with 84.142 world ranking points, while Edin receives $18,000CDN and 66.112 world ranking points for their second place finish. Starting with hammer, Gushue scored 1 in the first end, then forced Edin to a single in the second end. Gushue scored 2 in the third end, then forced Edin to a single in the fourth end to lead 3-2. Gushue broke the game open scoring 3 in the fifth end, after which Edin scored 2 in the sixth end. Gushue scored 2 in the seventh end for handshakes and the 8-4 win. In the semifinals, Gushue defeated Kevin Koe (Calgary, AB) 7-1 and Edin defeated Mike McEwen (Winnipeg, MB) 4-2. McEwen and Koe earned $12,000CDN and 51.086 ranking points for their semifinal finishes. In the quarterfinals, Gushue defeated Peter De Cruz (Geneva, Switzerland) 8-3, Edin defeated Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg, MB) 4-3, while McEwen defeated Brad Jacobs (Sault Ste Marie, ON) 6-3 and Koe defeated Jason Gunnlaugson (Winnipeg, MB) 8-2. Gunnlaugson, Carruthers, De Cruz earned $9,000CDN along with 36.061 ranking points for their quarterfinal finishes. Gushue went 4-0 in the 15 team round-robin pools qualifying round. In their opening game, Gushue defeated Kyle Smith (Perth, Scotland) 7-6, won against John Shuster (Duluth, USA) 9-7, and McEwen 5-4, then won against Thomas Ulsrud (Oslo, Norway) 6-3 in their final qualifying round match to finish the round-robin undefeated. |