Curling

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., rebounded from a rough start at the Grey Power World Cup of Curling to grab one of the final five quarter-final berths Friday.

Gushue, who started the tournament 0-2, joins Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, Sweden's Niklas Edin, Denmark's Ulrik Schmidt and Germany's Andy Kapp in the next round.

Edmonton's Kevin Martin and Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., had already secured the top two playoff seeds with perfect 6-0 records.

Edmonton's Kevin Koe (4-2) also advanced.

In Saturday's quarter-finals, Martin takes on Gushue, Howard faces Kapp, Ulsrud plays Schmidt, and Koe meets Edin.

On Friday, Martin defeated Koe 9-5 before eliminating Edmonton's Randy Ferbey (2-4) from quarter-final contention with a 6-3 win.

Howard kept his perfect record intact with a 6-5 extra-end victory over American John Shuster and an 8-5 win over Switzerland's Ralph Stoeckli.

Ulsrud grabbed the tournament's third playoff seed after defeating China's Fengchun Wang 4-2 in evening play to lead a group of four teams - including Koe, Edin and Schmidt - which concluded the round robin at 4-2.

Koe, who clinched a playoff berth in the morning after recording his fourth consecutive victory, lost his final preliminary round game to Edin 8-6.

The result was Koe's second straight defeat.

"You just want to make the playoffs and then go from there,'' said Koe. "You're going to be playing someone tough in there anyways. It's been a good week so far so hopefully we keep it going.''

Gushue and Kapp secured the final two seeds after finishing the preliminary round with records of 3-3.

Gushue recovered from his 0-2 start to finish the round robin with an even record following a 6-4 victory over reigning world champion David Murdoch of Scotland and a 9-4 win over Schmidt.

Murdoch finished the tournament with a 1-5 mark.The women competing in the Three Nations Cup at the same event will wrap up round robin play on Saturday. Stephanie Lawton of Saskatchewan and Eve Muirhead of Great Britain are 1-0 after winning their opening matches Friday. They will face each other Saturday morning.

Shannon Kleibrink and Bingyu Wang of China will both be looking for their first wins when they meet in the other match on Thursday.