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.
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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