Canada's Gushue golden at world men's curling championship

Canada's Brad Gushue completed a perfect run at the Ford World Men's Curling Championship on Sunday in Edmonton with a 4-2 victory over Sweden's Niklas Edin in the gold-medal game.

Gushue drew to the four-foot ring to score two points in the ninth end and delivered a takeout for the win in the 10th.

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He defeated Edin on three occasions en route to his first world title. Gushue beat him once during an 11-0 round-robin, topped him in the Page 1-2 game and did it again when it counted most.

"It's awesome," Gushue said. "That was a stressful game. Niklas and his team played so well. You have to give them credit. They're one of the best teams in the world.

"It took everything we had to beat them tonight."

Historic win

The St. John's team of Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker are the first rink to go undefeated at this event since Winnipeg's Kerry Burtnyk in 1995.

Gushue is the first skip to do it in the 12-team era.

Edin, a two-time world champion, got another crack at Gushue after beating Switzerland's Peter de Cruz in the semifinal a day earlier.

"We were still behind the whole game, and we needed to get something good to happen for us and we didn't do that," Edin said. "Congrats to the better team for the win."

After an opening blank, Gushue faced two Swedish stones with his final throw in the second end and delivered a hit and stick for a single.

Edin faced a similar situation in the third. The two-time world champion faced two Canadian rocks and drew to the button to pull even.

Gushueemphatic

Gushue was unusually animated at times. He was exasperated after a throw was slightly offline in the fourth end, his hit rolling out a little too far for a single.

He recovered in the fifth end with a brilliant double takeout that forced Edin to settle for one.

Both skips applied early pressure but had trouble scoring more than a single. The game remained tied at two after blanks in the sixth and seventh ends.

Gushue provided an emphatic fist pump after nailing a double takeout for another blank in the eighth.

The veteran skip delivered another double takeout in the 10th end. He raised his arms in the air in triumph as his final stone was about to hit the Swedish rock.

Gushue is the first skip to win gold medals at the world juniors (2001), Winter Olympics (2006) and the world men's championship.

de Cruz takes Bronze

Earlier in the day, de Cruz defeated American John Shuster 7-5 to win bronze. The Swiss side took control with a four-ender in the seventh end.

"We're happy with where we are," de Cruz said. "Now we have to try and learn how to beat the very best."

Announced attendance at the Northlands Coliseum was 7,292 for the final, bringing overall attendance to 85,214. A bump of 3,500 was expected once overall suite numbers were released.

The venue holds the world men's championship attendance record of 184,970 in 2007.

Ottawa's Rachel Homan won the world women's championship last month in Beijing. She went undefeated en route to her first world title.

Calgary skip Kevin Koe won the 2016 world men's title in Basel, Switzerland. Koe lost to Gushue in the Tim Hortons Brier final last month in St. John's.

The 2018 world men's playdowns will be held Mar. 31-Apr. 8 in Las Vegas.