Canada's Brad Gushue beats U.S. to win bronze in men's curling in Beijing

Sixteen years after winning his first Olympic medal, Canada's Brad Gushue now has another to add to his collection.

Gushue and his Canadian rink defeated reigning Olympic champion John Shuster and the United States 8-5 at the Ice Cube in Friday's bronze medal game in men's curling in Beijing.

Gushue, a 41-year-old from St. John's, and third Mark Nichols won gold in Turin in 2006, and have since taken three Briers, one world championship and a dozen Grand Slam titles. Lead Geoff Walker, second Brett Gallant and fifth Marc Kennedy round out the squad in Beijing.

"That was the toughest game I think I've ever played. It was hard," Gushue told CBC Sports' Colleen Jones.

He later added: "It's a big moment. We all wanted it real bad. No quit. We weren't at our best, but good enough."

WATCH: Gushue seals Olympic bronze medal victory for Canada in final end:

These Olympics had been rough on Canadian curlers up until Friday. Last week, John Morris and Homan suffered an 8-7, extra-end loss to Italy and missed qualifying for the playoffs in mixed doubles. On the women's side Jennifer Jones, who won gold in 2014 in Sochi, finished with a 5-4 record just below the playoff line.

Had Gushue lost to Shuster, it would've been the first time that Canada had been shut out of the podium ever since the sport's Olympic debut in 1998 in Nagano. It took a gold medal in mixed doubles in 2018 to avoid that scenario in Pyeongchang. Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan finished fourth and sixth, respectively in 2018.

"It's been 16 years since we've got to stand on the podium. I know it's not the colour we wanted, but we worked so darn hard to get back up there today. This is special for all of us," Nichols said.

Gushue played for a chance at a bronze after losing a heartbreaker to Sweden in the semifinals. Trailing 4-3 in the 10th end, Gushue attempted a double takeout instead of securing a point and forcing the extra end. It was, in Gushue's words, a "difficult shot," and he missed it by a "whisker," as the Swedes stole a single and went on to win 5-3.

"It's a really good feeling to end off this way… I think the bronze is going to feel pretty special once the sting of [not winning] the gold wears off," said Gallant, who turned 32 on Friday.

Playing with the hammer, the Canadian ran into trouble in the third with back-to-back misses, but Gushue ended up scoring one via a clutch take-out with the Americans lying four. Shuster responded by scoring a deuce of his own to tie things up at 3-3 after four ends.

Canada spent the entire fifth end playing for the blank, but a miss with Gushue's last skip stone meant he scored one to put his team back in the lead. Gushue's miss on a double take-out attempt in the sixth led to Shuster scoring a deuce to give the U.S a 5-4 lead.

A fantastic double take-out by Gushue with his final skip stone resulted in a blanked seventh end. With a chance at a triple, Gushe's last rock of the eighth was heavy, but he still scored a deuce as Canada went up 6-5.

With Canada lying two in the ninth, Shuster's last skip stone rolled too wide to allow Canada to steal two and take an 8-5 lead.That was the turning point, as there was no way back for the Americans who controlled most of the match up until then.

With the game out of reach for the U.S., the teams shook hands just before both skips were called into action in the 10th end to seal a famous Canadian victory.

Sweden faces Great Britain in the gold medal game on Saturday at 1:05 a.m. ET.

WATCH: Extended Highlights: Canada's Gushue claims men's curling bronze with win over U.S.