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Murdoch Takes Gold

After finishing the round robin with a perfect record, Canada's Brad Gushue headed into the semi-finals against Norway's Pal Trulsen. A victory there moved him on to face off with Scotland's David Murdoch for the gold medal at the very first World Curling Tour Europe event in Russia.

The semi-final game against Trulsen was looking up for Gushue, who took a 5-2 lead into the fifth end. But Trulsen picked up a duce in the fifth and stole another in the sixth to tie the game up at 5-5. This sent the game into an extra end, where Gushue made the clutch draw for the win.

Now for the championship game. Murdoch proved to be a much tougher opponent for Gushue. Murdoch reached the gold medal game also with a perfect record. He downed Team Russia in the semi-final, 7-4.

Scotland started this gold medal match with the hammer, and took full advantage. Murdoch, already lying one, drew in to pick up the duce and get off to an early lead. A few errors from Gushue's side allowed Murdoch to steal another in the second.

Team Canada continued to struggle with the hammer in the third end, managing to only grab a single point and make it a 3-1 game. But now Murdoch had the hammer back and had the opportunity to do even more damage. And that's just what he did, picking up another two points to take a commanding four point lead with just two ends left to play.

The deficit proved to be too much for Brad Gushue and his team from Newfoundland to overcome, as they are forced to settle for silver. Despite the loss, this has been a great showing for the Gushue rink, being their first time playing together with their new lead and second, Jamie Korab and Ryan Fry. Gushue headed into the tournament with the intentions of bonding as a team and making sure they had all the kinks worked out before the real season started, and it appears that things are working pretty well. For Murdoch, it's a great way to start off the year. Disappointed with his loss to Canada's Kevin Martin at last year's World Championships, this warm-up event puts Murdoch in great shape to have another successful run this season.

In the bronze medal game, Pal Trulsen defeated the Russians by a score of 5-4.

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