Canada routs Japan, Switzerland to lock down semifinal spot at men’s curling worlds

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Canada clinched a spot in the semifinals at the world men’s curling championship with a pair of lopsided wins Friday.

Skip Brad Gushue and his St. John’s, N.L., team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker finished the round robin in second place at 10-2 with a 9-3 win over Japan and an 8-1 rout over host Switzerland.

The top two teams advance directly into Saturday’s semifinals. Six-time champion Niklas Edin and Sweden had already locked up first place in the standings heading into Friday’s final draw.

Gushue needed just six ends to beat Switzerland (6-6), which was eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the day following a 7-6 loss to Germany.

After a blank first end, Canada blew the game open with four in the second. Gushue’s squad built on the lead with steals of one in the third and two in the fourth.

Earlier, Canada scored three in the third and four in the fourth end against Japan in another six-end win.

Gushue entered the day coming off a 6-5 loss to Edin in the second of his two games on Thursday, ending a five-game winning streak. Canada gave up three points early in that game and couldn’t complete a comeback.

“We just wanted to deal with the frost and deal with the rocks a little bit better,” Walker said after the Japan win. “We were happy with the way we finished the game after a rough start and happy with the way we grinded, but we wanted to get back to the basics today, things like putting on a little extra rotation and sweeping the rocks a bit differently in the frost.”

Scotland, Germany, Italy and the United States also qualified for the playoffs and will play in a qualification round before Saturday’s semifinals.