(Ottawa) Canadian Brad Gushue (9-3) concluded the preliminary round of the World Curling Championship with an 8-5 win over defending Swedish champion Niklas Edin (9-3) on Friday night in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gushue scored four points in the fifth end and added three more points in the seventh end, which put him out of harm’s way.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday in a qualifying match. Gushue will have the hammer being seeded #4.

“We haven’t played our benchmark game yet this week,” Gushue said. So hopefully we save it for this weekend. »

Gushue earlier defeated Turkey’s Ugurcan Karagoz, 9-5.

Gushue broke the deadlock in the fifth end after scoring four points. Turkey conceded the victory after earning a point in the eighth end.

“It’s not the comeback I wanted this morning, but there’s still tonight,” said Gushue, who lost to Scotland on Thursday night.

Gushue teams up with Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker.

The six playoff spots are confirmed.

Canada will be joined by Switzerland (11-1), Sweden (9-3), Norway (9-2), Scotland (10-2) and Italy (8-4) for the weekend clashes.

Italy secured sixth place by beating Japan (5-6) by a score of 12-5 on Friday morning.

Switzerland and the second-place team will advance directly to the semi-finals. The other teams will play qualifying matches on Saturday afternoon to determine the semi-finals.

Medal games are scheduled for Sunday.

Gushue’s only world title came in 2017, in Edmonton. Edin, the reigning Olympic champion, has won four world titles in a row and six in total.

Kerri Einarson led Canada to bronze at the World Women’s Curling Championship last month in Finland.