Sweden Wins Tricky Vegas Curling Worlds

Challenging ice conditions shot to the forefront of the men’s world curling championship as Sweden’s Niklas Edin cemented his status as one of the all-time greats.

Edin and his accomplished squad of Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wraana, Christoffer Sundgren, Daniel Magnusson, and coach Fredrik Lindberg won their fourth successive world title—Edin’s sixth overall—with an 8-6 championship victory over Brad Gushue of Canada.

It was the third time in five years that these teams have met in the world final. Gushue captured the 2017 crown while Edin defeated Canada in 2018.

Edin has now defeated Gushue four times in the last two months encompassing critical events—the Olympic Winter Games and world championship.

“We’re very happy,” said Edin. “That game was very tough, difficult conditions to play on, so I’m really happy that we could fight as hard as we did, and really try to figure out every spot. That meant we could play as smart as we can, not making the wrong mistakes at the wrong time.”

Canada roared to a 3-0 lead after four consecutive Swedish misses led to a steal of two in the second end.

In the third end, Gushue watched in horror as his first stone suddenly reversed course, falling off line by a solid three inches from the hogline into the house. Edin scored two that end to trail 3-2.

“That game could have gone either way,” said Edin. “At the beginning they were all over us, but we really tried to hang in there and play our rocks.

“We did that pretty well in the last half of the game and took our chances when we got them, so I’m super proud of the team, they really stuck in there, not getting too frustrated.”

Both teams used their timeouts in the seventh end. There were seven stones clustered around the four-foot rings when Gushue came to play his last shot. The Canadians were looking for a big score, but Gushue’s raise only produced one point to level the game at 5-5.

In the eighth end, Edin removed two Canadian stones but couldn’t hold his shooter, scoring one to lead 6-5.

Canada then tried to blank the ninth end, but Gushue nosed the shot stone to level the game at 6-6 and crucially hand last stone in the 10th to the Swedes.

Edin didn’t need to throw his final shot for the win as Gushue’s 10th-end attempt to play a soft in-off behind cover didn’t curl enough.

It was another on the list of shots affected by frustrating ice conditions that left both teams mystified.

“I’m not that disappointed with the loss, to be honest,” said Gushue, who captured Canada’s 12th world championship silver medal and world-leading 55th medal overall. “I’m disappointed that a really cool experience was taken away from our team.

“When you get into moments like this, where it’s one sheet at a world championship, you want to go out and display what you’re able to do and have a good battle and make some shots, and get the crowd roaring. It became a coin toss on every rock, and unfortunately it came up heads for Niklas a little more than it did for us.

“I’m disappointed at the conditions. Not losing. Niklas can beat us on good ice, too.”

Gushue, who won the tournament round-robin, was supported by Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant, Geoff Walker, alternate E.J. Harnden, team coach Jules Owchar and national coach Jeff Stoughton.

Both Sweden and Canada and finished with a total won/loss record of 11-3.

Swedish lead Christoffer Sundgren went down with a bad hip during the playoffs, which saw alternate Daniel Magnusson pressed into action. Magnussen, who was the top Swedish shooter in the final at 86%, threw lead rocks and held the target brush for Edin’s skip stones.

Both back ends struggled throughout the match. Oskar Erikkson notched a 69 in shooting percentage to Mark Nichols’ 80%, while Edin finished with 78% compared to Gushue’s 62%.

All three medal-winning teams—which includes Italy, who won a huge bronze medal victory over hosts United States—flew immediately to Toronto for the Players’ Championship, which features 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams competing for a $300,000 prize purse.