Canada's Gushue thumps Japan in 6 ends at men's curling worlds

Brad Gushue enjoyed quite the bounceback effort on Friday as Canada thumped Japan's Shinya Abe 9-3 in six ends at the world men's curling championship in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Gushue and his St. John's team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker improved to 9-2 with their last round-robin game against Switzerland (6-4) set for later Friday.

After Japan (3-9) evened the score at 1-1 after two ends, Gushue's side flipped the game on its head by scoring three in the third and four in the fourth end.

The Canadians followed up with a single in the fifth before Japan converted on a deuce in the sixth before conceding the game with four ends remaining.

Gushue was coming off a 6-5 loss to unbeaten Niklas Edin of Sweden in the second of his two games on Thursday, ending a five-game winning streak.

The top six teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two seeds advancing directly to the semifinal. The medal games will be held on Sunday.