Patrick Chan has some ground to make up in defence of his Grand Prix Final figure skating title.
The 21-year-old from Toronto, the two-time defending champion in the event, trails Daisuke Takahashi of Japan after Friday's short program.
sa国际传媒's Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir also sit second behind American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White after the short dance.
In pairs, Meagan Duhamel Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., are fourth, and Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto sit fifth.
Chan opened with a huge quad toe loop, but opted out of the triple on what was supposed to be a quad-triple combination.
"I had to kind of think on my feet. The last triple jump did not have enough speed going into it and was a bit too far down the ice. But I stayed on my feet, and I'm happy with my performance," Chan said. "I think this is where I want to be. Three points is not a lot in men's singles. It is really easy to make up."
Chan said the highlight of his program was a "beautiful triple Axel. It's the only time I've done such a big triple Axel in my program in my life."
Japan's Mao Asada led a close women's event, just ahead of American Ashley Wagner and Akiko Suzuki of Japan.
Takahashi, the only one of the six finalists not to win a gold in the six regular Grand Prix competitions, reeled off an opening quad toe loop, a triple Lutz-triple toe combination and a triple Axel.
"For me, it's the first time I did a quad in the short program for this season," Takahashi said. "I really enjoyed to skate today."
The competition is a test event for the Iceberg Arena, which will host figure skating and short-track speedskating at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
