Brad Gushue stays alive at Road to the Roar with win over Steve Laycock

KITCHENER, Ont. – Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., needs just one more win to get closer to another Olympic experience.

The 2006 Olympic silver medallist came out hitting against Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock for a 5-3 win on Sunday in the Page Playoff C-C game at the Road to the Roar Olympic pre-trials.

With the win, Gushue earned another faceoff with Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in the last chance to qualify for the Roar of the Rings Olympic curling trials in December. That event that will decide Canada’s teams for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

“It felt great out there,” said Gushue. “I thought we played well. We really minimized our mistakes, which is something really burned us early on this week. We didn’t make any big ones, and the few mistakes that we did, we came back with great shots after.”

The No. 2-ranked Gushue rattled off two wins early in the pre-trial tournament, then lost the A-Event final to John Morris of Vernon/Kelowna, B.C. Battling back through the B-Event, Gushue lost the semifinal to Jacobs and had to win two more games before defeating Greg Balsdon of Elgin, Ont., in the C-Event finals and earn a spot in the Page C-C game.

Gushue and his team of Brett Gallant, Adam Casey, Geoff Walker and coach Peter Gallant shot 90 per cent as a team, and executed the big shots when needed.

In the eighth, with a Laycock counter tucked behind a corner guard, Gushue made the runback double with his first, and then threw a precise pick forcing Laycock to hit for one and head into the final two ends trailing by two.

Trailing by one in the final end, Laycock split the house to set up a possible score of two, forcing Gushue to draw for one and put the win away.

“We’re playing our best curling the past two days, and hopefully it continues tonight,” Gushue said. “We just need one game, one great game, and we’ll be in Winnipeg. But unfortunately, we’re playing a real good team, and they’re playing well too. So we’re going to give it everything we have and hopefully come out on top.”

While disappointed, Laycock was also philosophical after the loss.

“We came in ranked fifth, and we finished fourth,” said Laycock. “Disappointing to lose out there, but they played a great game though. Brad make five or six doubles that were huge.”