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Canada Dominates in Russia

It was one of the most anticipated games this fall. Not because of the purse or number of CTRS points, because this tournament offers neither. But people were itching to see the brand new Team Gushue play together for the first time. Gushue revived most of his golden Olympic team, and it seems to have worked. The Canadian squad downed two of the home-crowd favorites in day one of the event.

Shortly after last season's Players' Championship, Gushue welcomed back lead Jamie Korab, who was absent from the team for one year. The move was expected to be extremely positive for the team. Just to remind you, the last time Korab played with Gushue and Nicholes (third), the team won an Olympic gold medal and played in the Brier final.

In draw one at the St. Petersburg Curling Cup, the first World Curling Tour event in Russia, Gushue's revamped squad brought some serious offense. Gushue was taking on the home-town favorites, Team St. Petersburg, skipped by Igor Mini. The Russians got on the board first, picking up a single point in the first end.

Taking the hammer into the second end, Gushue took full advantage of last rock, posted a huge three points on the board. And from there, the Canadians never looked back. They nailed the Russians for back-to-back steals of one point in the third and fourth end, and then stole a duce in the fifth. In the sixth and final end, Gushue stole one more point to close out the game with a convincing score of 8-1.

The other game taking place in draw was from Norway's Thomas Ulsrud taking on Team Russia, skipped by Andy Drozdov. To the shock of many, the significantly less experienced Russian team pounded the 2008 World Mens bronze medalists. The Russians stole two points in the second end and another three points in the fifth end. These short six-end games proved to be too short for Ulsrud to engineer a comeback, and Russian won it 7-3.

Gushue had a bye in draw two as the 'B' Pool took the ice. This game featured some huge names, as we saw a matchup between Germany's Andy Kapp and the legendary Pal Trulsen. Germany won, 4-3. On sheet B, Scotland's David Murdoch took on the other Home-town team, St. Petersburg #2, wich was skipped by Valentin Demenkov. Murdoch had little trouble with the local team, as he won it 5-3.

In draw three, the Canadians were back on the ice. This time they would play a game against another Russian team, this time against Andy Drozdov. The game started well for the Gushue rink, and they leaded out of the gate grabbing an impressive four points in the first end. Just when it started to look like it'd be another landslide victory, the Russians roared back in the second end with three points to pull close. Gushue managed to score a duce in the third and hang on to the lead, winning his second game of the day by a score of 7-5.

Team Canada will play the first game tomorrow to close out their round-robin games, taking on Thomas Ulsrud. In the evening, Gushue will take on "Team Adamant" in a special exhibition game. Pal Trulsen will also play an exhibition game tomorrowing evening, taking on a "V.I.P./Journalist Team".

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