Canada's Gushue falls to Scotland's Mouat in gold-medal game at men's curling worlds

There was no elation in front of a home crowd for Canada's Brad Gushue this time around.

Drama was minimized Sunday at TD Place as his team's attempt to follow a national curling crown with a world title was snuffed out in emphatic fashion.

Scotland's Bruce Mouat was in full control in a 9-3 win that sent him to the top of the world men's podium for the first time and extended Canada's golden drought for another year.

"We brought our A-plus game," Mouat said. "I don't think we've played many better games than that."

Mouat started with hammer and scored a deuce in the second end. He added two more points on a steal in the third and never relinquished the lead.

"It was clinical," said Canada vice Mark Nichols. "They made everything but we didn't put any pressure on them."

Gushue, Nichols, second E.J. Harnden and lead Geoff Walker looked set to follow the playbook that worked for them at the Brier.

Gushue appeared primed to peak again when it mattered most, eliminating defending champ Niklas Edin of Sweden before downing top seed Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland in the semifinal.

But Mouat never let Canada get a sniff. He took the crowd out of it early by delivering a near-flawless performance.

"Even if we did play our best, them having the hammer starting out and then playing the way that they played, it probably wasn't going to be enough anyway," Gushue said.

"But I would have liked to have pushed it a little bit more [to] find out."

The podium finish