Music: {allcanada} STOUGHTON: BRIER DIFFERENT THAN CURLING AGAINST THE WORLD

Jeff Stoughton's curling team is shifting mental gears for the Ford Men's World Curling Championship.

Winning the Tim Hortons Brier earlier this month in London, Ont., made the Winnipeg rink Canada's representative at the world championship starting Saturday in Regina.

Stoughton skipped Canada at the event in 1996 and 1999 -- winning gold and silver medals, respectively -- and says the world tournament is a different animal than the national championship.

"We've just won the most difficult event and that's the Brier. What's left is the most important event," Stoughton explained. "You do want to finish it off with a world championship. That's going to be our philosophy going in there.

"Sure, we can go back on our laurels and say 'we had a great run at the Brier' but basically we've stuffed our medals and trophies away and said 'we're at ground zero, we've got nothing, let's go win a gold medal."'

Because of the depth of competitive curling teams in Canada, winning the Brier is considered as difficult, if not more difficult, than a world title. But as in hockey, the pressure on Canada's curlers ramps up when they reach the international stage.

Canadian men have won 32 world titles since 1959, including three of the last four championships.

"At the Brier, your fan base is hoping Manitoba wins the Brier and then when you win the Brier, then the fan base in Canada expects you to win the gold," Stoughton said. "It's very, very different."

Stoughton opens the 12-country tournament Saturday against Switzerland's Christof Schwaller and Denmark's Tommy Stjerne at the Brandt Centre. The top four teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round advance to the Page playoff.

Stoughton's team includes third Jon Mead, second Reid Carruthers and lead Steve Gould. Canada's chief rivals for gold this year are expected to be Olympic silver medallist Thomas Ulsrud of Norway, Germany's Andy Kapp, Pete Fenson of the U.S., and a young Swedish team skipped by 25-year-old Niklas Edin.

The world championship has changed since Stoughton's last appearance in 1999 in Saint John, N.B. The men's and women's world championships have been separate events for six years now, so there isn't a Canadian women's team to share the spotlight with Stoughton's rink.

Also, non-traditional curling countries such as the Czech Republic, France, China and South Korea are now competing internationally.

But Stoughton says what makes him feel like he's really at a world championship is his inability to eavesdrop on what strategy opposing skips and thirds are plotting.

"The thing about the worlds I think is really cool, you're out there playing with guys and you have no idea what they're talking about," he said. "That's intriguing in itself."

Stoughton, Mead and Gould are not strangers to high-pressure games. Stoughton and Gould won the 1996 world title together with Ken Tresoor at third and Garry Vandenberghe at second.

Stoughton, Mead, Vandenberghe and lead Doug Armstrong lost the world final in an extra end to Scotland's Hammy McMillan in 1999. With Gould back at lead, the team lost the final of the 2005 curling trials to Brad Gushue, who went on to win an Olympic gold medal in Turin.

Mead left Stoughton's team after the trials loss, but joined forces with the skip again for this season. They also picked up Carruthers to play second this winter.

The Charleswood Curling Club team had an outstanding national championship. They curled 97 per cent as a team to beat reigning Olympic champ Kevin Martin of Alberta in the preliminary round, before a 96-per-cent performance in the final versus Ontario's Glenn Howard.

"We've always felt we had the talent and could compete with the big boys," Stoughton said. "It was a comfort zone with Jon, Reid and Steve. We all felt comfortable with each other's ability on the ice. We all felt comfortable that each other had put in as much effort as they possibly could in being their best at the right time.

"That helps a lot with the mental side of the game where you're not second-guessing anybody and they're not second-guessing you. We felt if we brought our best game, we could beat anybody out there."

Stoughton, 47, is a systems analyst for Air Canada. Mead, 44, works for a Winnipeg business development agency. Reid, 26, is a teacher and Gould, 38, owns a roofing company. Stoughton, Mead and Gould are all married with children.

The team will discuss their long-term future after this season is over, Stoughton says. The 2013 trials to determine Canada's representative at the 2014 Olympics will be in his hometown of Winnipeg.

"With all the funding and the perks that come with winning a Brier championship, it's pretty hard not to say you're not going to play for another year or two," Stoughton said. "We're pretty well dialled in to play a decent schedule next year and we'll take it from there.

"We won't know until April when we sit down and decide what we're actually going to do, if we're going to make a run for the 2013 trials in Winnipeg or not. That, we don't know the answer to yet."

Stoughton says being closer to the end of his curling career than the beginning makes a return trip to the world championship feel special.

"We're at the stage in our careers -- I am anyway -- that you just never know when you're going to be back so you enjoy the moment," he says. "That's the same with going to the worlds. We may never get back there again. It's been 12 years since we got back.

"It means more now, just because we know we might not get as many opportunities to get back to that stage. That's why we want to take every advantage of it."

TSN will carry all round robin games involving Canada, plus playoffs and the gold-medal game April 10 (7 p.m. ET).