Olympic Curling - Men’s Gold Match

Greetings Everybody! I am live-blogging this as I watch the game on CBC ..

UPDATE: THIS SCORE IS NOW FINAL!

Congratulations Team Canada / Team Gushue!
THANK-YOU GUYS! YOU PLAYED GREAT!

skip - Brad Gushue (aka 4th)
3rd - Mark Nichols
2nd - Russ Howard (real skip)
lead - Jamie Korab
Alternate - Mike Adam

Canada vs Finland

END 1 - FIN 2, CAN 0
END 2 - FIN 2, CAN 2
END 3 - FIN 2, CAN 3
END 4 - FIN 2, CAN 4
END 5 - FIN 3, CAN 4
END 6 - FIN 3, CAN 10
END 7 - FIN 3, CAN 10
END 8 - FIN 4, CAN 10
(concession after 8th ends)

TEAM CANADA WINS GOLD!

FINAL: Canada 10, Finland 4
Results

Here are the stats..

~~~ Tidbits while I am live blogging, latest on top ~~~

FIN vs CAN - 2nd half
* End 8 - Markku #1 repeat .. Gushue #2 Repeat .. Markku #1 draw to the button and they shake hands!
* End 8 - Gushue shot #1 .. FIN counting 1 .. and removed by Brad
* End 8 - He made it the double :)
* End 8 - what to do? Surrrree let Mark make the double! He’s practically made everything else he’s tried! he’s 96% after 7 ends
* Don Wittman just mentioned that there is an Olympic rule that teams in curling must play at least 8 ends although, we already know that isn’t the case because we’ve seen a concession after the 6th and 7th during round robin games .. he probably meant Medal games … ?
* End 7 - Gushue #1 - broke the mold - took out the guard and the one in the house .. nice shot :)
* End 7 - Booooring .. but the safest move for Team Canada … Peel all the guards away and don’t let more than 2 rocks remain after the hogline
* End 6 - Geez .. Gushue’s final stone too much weight and went through the house … but! Still count . SIX? Wow!
* End 6 - MARKKU! NO!! a costly mistake, didn’t make it around the top guard, and actually pushed another yellow into the house! Gushue could end the game here…
* End 6 - Gushue took it out - now lie 5
* End 6 - Markku #1 - drew around all the guards and needed to freeze at the center rock. It just didn’t curl enough and while he made shot? (or maybe not) his rock is visible
* CBC is pretty current with the news … with a write up after end 5
* End 6 - Gushue is calling lots of movement and // HOLY CRAP! Mark Nichols just made a perfect triple takeout and didn’t even move any other yellows in play … lol .. If there were 3 Stars in this game - he’d be Star #1 and Star #2 .. (one for his takeouts and one for his draw shots!)
* End 6 - good shooting by Jamie Korab .. one yellow on the button, and right now (like before) there are no shortage of rocks in play - well, except that one - that Russ Howard just double tapped out the back

Here are the Efficiency percentages after 5
* skip - FIN 53%, CAN 68%
* 3rd - FIN 50%, CAN 98%
* 2nd - FIN 73%, CAN 68%
* lead - FIN 85%, CAN 95%

FIN vs CAN … continued
* How am I doing? This looks like Chris’ shot just BEFORE the measurement
* End 5 - At least 1, measurement in play
* End 5 - Gushue’s last rock tried to repeat Markku, and freeze up to him .. he managed to squeeze through, but a little roll keeps him counting 2nd .. Markku has final stone.
* End 5 - Markku just made a Greeeeat rock squeezing between the 5 guards at the top of the house and took out the 1st stone of Canada at the button .. with a clean takeout - now - they are counting two
* Chris - this picture pretty much shows what each End has been .. house full of stones!
*
* End 5 - Russ Howards “safe” shot to put another guard was not only light, but seemed to have picked up some debris and over curled. You know .. it’s been a while since I curled, but most of the times (for me) it was just happening when you didn’t sweep the bottom of the stone before throwing it - don’t you find? What do you think? Bad Rink? or Bad Curler forgetting to clean stone? Hmmmm
* End 4 - Markku #2 - tried to get around but slightly ricochet off the side of the guard .. otherwise a great shot .. and holds Canada to just 1
* End 4 - Gushue #2 another block guard outside the house, there are 3 guards now, and 7 rocks in the house
* End 4 - Markku #1 - bumps out a double tap/raise to get the yellow out to the 8/12ft line and he’s in 2nd shot.
* End 4 - The commentators do not seem to approve of Markku’s decisions and “wild” risky shots! Of course, if it were anybody else ..
* End 4 - I am in awe of Mark Nichols - after 8 shots in 4 ends, he’s still at 100% efficiency. Currently, the 2 yellows at the button - his. There are 2 reds behind it and another yellow.

BTW .. Chris is Broadcasting!
* End 5 - during measurement - CBC just showed someone taking a picture with their camera .. was that you Chris? ;-)
* As promised, Chris is taking some great pictures and uploading them to the following URL
http://www.splashblog.com/curling/

FIN vs CAN - game play
* Markku #2 makes a nice bump and comes up to cut off the steal of 4 to only 1,,
* Gushue #2 draws to the outer rim .. counting 4? Markku cannot afford to miss (fingers crossed though!)
* Markku! Markku! oh no .. what a miss - not only didn’t he make it around the guard - he bumped Canada’s yellow stone into the 8/12ft area down center line. Canada counting 3 but, open.
* Gushue #1 taps his front yellow guard to bump the red out of the house, and now counting 2 with a little guarding. But, “U-15″ makes all these types of draws.. I think he will make it.
* Speaking of Nichols .. after 6 shots each .. both he and Korab are 100% efficiency. Finland’s 2nd (Kalle Kiiskinen) and 3rd (Wille Makela) are at 88% which, is hard to figure out - because I don’t think they’ve missed any shots either! Must be one of those ‘weighted’ judging decisions when a takeout doesn’t roll 100% as wished
* Fight! Fight! Fight! - Russ Howard wanted a measurement to see if they counted 3, but Finland took offense it seemed. From the camera (over the button) it’s hard to tell exactly but it looked like red beat yellow. Mark nichols looked at it and said same thing .. Gushue called off the measurement.
* End 2 - Markku last rock - almost, but not quite… Canada now counting 1 .. might need a measurement as Gushue draws his last rock draws to the button
* End 2 - Gushue #1 lol .. tried the double take out, he replaced the top red with yellow, the red bumped out the 2nd red that he wanted out but, stuck .. There are 5 rocks on the outer 12ft line and a yellow .. Yet.. Markku is considering cleaning house and hope for 3?
* End 2 - Markku #1 draws nicely around one of the 12 ft guards, but only taps back the 8ft yellow to the back 12ft outer line
* End 2 - first 6 shots.. nice draws, nice takeouts .. before the skip.. we’ve got 3 reds (finland) on the outside 12ft circle lines and 2 yellows (canada) one in 12 ft and one in 8 ft .. Both yellow seem nicely guarded by red
* End 1 - Markku #2 - made it, but a break for both teams.. only 2
* End 1 - Gushue #2 - light weight .. but might be counting 2nd shot.. but 2 or 3 points by Markku looks possible
* End 1 - Markku #1 .. draw behind Gushue’s rock on last shot, touching 8/12ft line
* End 1 - Gushue #1 .. miss, curled too much and took out the front guard, but rolled to the left in the 12ft
* End 1 - after the first 6 rocks, I predict we are going to see some great draws by Finland and great take-outs by Canada .. and great hit and rolls by both teams!

The Basics..
* These teams have also played each other in late 2005, and Team Gushue won 9-3 .. I’m looking for the link to the statistics .. between ends.
* Finland starts with the hammer
* If you recall, these teams played each other in Session 8 and Team Finland beat Team Canada 8-7
* I am just going to refer to the curlers by their last name, except for skip of Finland who I’ll just call MARKKU UUSIPAAVALNIEMI as either “Markku” or “U-15″