GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA – Japan's Yusuke Morozumi rink shot 93 percent as it took down John Shuster and the American men 8-2 Sunday in round-robin action at the Pyeongchang Winter Games on Saturday.
American men's, women's curling teams routed by Japan, Canada
Shuster of Chisholm, Minn., and teammates Tyler George (Duluth), Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner never got a good feel for the ice in the lopsided loss.
"Slow start," Landsteiner said. "Maybe not ready to go in the morning, I don't know why. We did the same routine, everything. … Just everything kind of went the wrong way starting out."
The loss drops the American men to 2-3 overall as Japan improved to 3-2.
In women's curling, Canada heaved a collective sigh of relief after the defending world champions finally nabbed their first victory.
The Canadians' 11-3 victory over the U.S. followed three consecutive losses, a performance that few had anticipated from a team that was heavily favored to win the gold.
"I think we played really well in those other games, but we each had a couple key mistakes that really cost us," Canadian skip Rachel Homan said. "Obviously, we're trying our best out there."
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Darius Taylor, who led the Gophers in rushing last season, missed the Aug. 29 opener and was questionable this week leading up to Saturday’s game.