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BEIJING — HOCKEY HEAVYWEIGHTS

It had to be Marie-Philip Poulin. The captain of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s women's hockey team sealed her side's victory — and top spot in Group A — with a goal on a penalty shot late in the second period. Poulin moved in and scored bottom corner to send sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ to a 4-2 victory over the defending-champion United States in a potential gold-medal match preview. Brianne Jenner scored twice and Ann-Renee Desbiens made 51 saves. "You have one of the top players in the world going in on a penalty shot, so you get pretty excited," Desbiens said of Poulin. The victory gave sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ a perfect 4-0 record and the top seed heading into its quarterfinal match on Friday. Poulin and the Canadians will face the third seed in Group B. They outscored their opponents 33-5 in the preliminary round.

GO GOW, GO!

Scott Gow put together sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s best performance ever in a men's 20-kilometre biathlon. The Calgary native came in fifth, one minute five seconds behind gold-medal winner Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, and 34 seconds behind Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe in third. Christian Gow (Scott's brother) was 24th; Adam Runnalls finished 33rd; and Jules Burnotte was 36th. Scott Gow's performance tied sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s best Olympic result in a men's biathlon event — Jean-Philippe Le Guellec was fifth in the men's 10-kilometre sprint a the Sochi Games in 2014. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has not won a medal in biathlon since Myriam Bedard's two golds in 1994. 

PODIUM WITHIN REACH

It was another day of near misses for Canadians across a handful of disciplines. Freestyle skier Megan Oldham landed a trick she had never done in competition before in the women's big air. It gave her a fourth-place finish, just shy of a medal. And it was a question of milliseconds for alpine skier Jack Crawford. The 24-year-old missed out on a podium spot by 0.43 seconds in the men's super-G for a sixth-place finish. The Toronto skier was fourth in the men's downhill the day before by 0.07 seconds.

COME ON EILEEN

The "Snow Princess" is now an Olympic champion. American-born Eileen Gu, who is competing for China, landed her first ever 1620 — a jump with four and a half spins — on her final attempt to win the women's freestyle skiing big air. Gu needed a massive last jump after France's Tess Ledeux posted scores of 94.50 and 93.00. She got it, and Ledeux couldn't match her with the final jump of the competition. Megan Oldham of Parry Sound, Ont., who was first in Monday's qualifying, finished fourth.

SIMPLY CHEN-SATIONAL

American figure skater Nathan Chen is in prime position to win his long-sought gold medal — and it only took a world record to get him there. Chen shattered the world record in the short program with 113.97 points. He leads Japanese upstarts Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno heading into Thursday's free skating. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s Keegan Messing was ninth in the men's short program, one day after arriving in Beijing following a journey delayed by a positive COVID-19 test. The 30-year-old was detained in Vancouver and missed sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s charter flights to Beijing, so he flew to Montreal and then Milan, Italy to get to China.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2022.

The Canadian Press