Canada’s Brad Gushue and Sweden’s Niklas Edin won the night to create a gold medal bout in the final chapter of one of the sport’s best rivalries. Gushue beat Edin at the 2017 World Finals in Edmonton, but Edin won the rematch a year later at the same Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The Swede is a three-time defender of the champion and comes with great success after beating Gushue on the way to the golden Olympics last February. Gushue won the bronze medal in Beijing and pursued his fourth national title in six years. “It was a long year and we were kicking,” Gushue said. “You would not want to get to the finish line and not play a good game. We hope we can play well.” Gushue beat American Korey Dropkin 8-5 in one semifinal and Edin beat Italian Joel Retornaz 8-4 in the other. WATCH l Canada Gushue loses US 8-5, qualifies for gold:

Gushue promotes Canada to gold medal race at Men’s World Curling Championship

Canadian Brad Gushue beats American Korey Dropkin 8-5 in the semifinals of the men’s world curling championship. The Canadian track will play for the gold against the defender of the champion Niklas Edin of Sweden. 1:27
Gushue and his team from St. John’s, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker scored two goals in the 10th minute when Dropkin’s final draw was a bit heavy. As the leader, the Canadians will have a hammer in Sunday afternoon’s race. “It’s just a very consistent team,” Edin said of the Gushue rink. “They will make you play well and win. You will definitely never beat them in a quick game. So we have to play close to perfect and then we will need one last shot, probably if we want to win.” Dropkin reached the semifinals by defeating Scottish Kyle Waddell 6-4 in a qualifying match earlier on Saturday. Both Canada and the United States made mistakes in the first end as they seemed to have difficulty reading on the ice. Gallant made two mistakes and Nichols threw his first stone, but Canada managed to empty. More accurate shots were fired at the second end and Gushue gave a double-takeout to open the scoring with a pair.
A small but strong crowd – split almost evenly between Canadian and American supporters – provided some atmosphere in a quiet place for most of the week. Dropkin tried a corner lift at the third end, but only managed a single. He gave up a two-pointer in the sixth, but scored his first duo in the ninth end after gently hitting his own stone. Canada posted a record of 10-2 rounds to lock the first seed. Sweden beat Canada earlier in the week, but finished second in the 13-team division in the playoffs. Retornaz, who defeated Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller 10-4 in the other qualifier, will play Dropkin for the bronze on Sunday morning. Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni won the women’s world title last month at Prince George, while BC’s Kerri Einarson of Canada won bronze.