Canada's Chan, American Wagner win at Skate Canada
LETHBRIDGE, Alberta (AP) Canada's Patrick Chan won Skate Canada on Saturday night in his first event since the Sochi Olympics.
The three-time world champion had a beautiful long program to Frederic Chopin that included a huge quad toe loop and triple Axel. He scored 271.14 points.
''Pretty, pretty high stress and challenging competition for me,'' Chan said. ''I stepped on the ice and skated with no thought of who's around, who's watching, just really skating. Because it feels good to skate for myself, and physically, it's a great feeling when you go out and do what you've been doing day after day.''
Yuzuru Hanyu, who topped Chan for the gold medal in Sochi, was second at 259.54, and Japanese teammate Daisuke Murakamitook followed at 252.25. American Adam Rippon was fourth at 239.69.
American Ashley Wagner ran away with the women's title. Skating to music from Moulin Rouge, the three-time U.S. champion scored 202.52 points with an almost flawless program that included seven triple jumps.
''It was practice for me and an opportunity to train the program under pressure for nationals and worlds, which are my main focuses this year,'' Wagner said. ''To go out and deliver that performance and receive that score, with the mistakes that I had, I think that's a really good sign for things to come this season, and I think that for me it's just really going to be about keeping my head on straight, doing that over and over and over again.''
World champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia moved up from seventh after the short program to finish second at 188.89. Japan's Yuka Nagai was third at 172.92.
Canada's Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje won the ice dance title. They finished with 173.79 points, wowing the Enmax Centre audience with their free dance to Max Richter's ''On the Nature of Daylight.''
American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani were second at 168.36, and Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev followed at 161.11.
Canadian world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the pairs with 216.16 points. Russia's Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov were second at 191.19, and Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers Michael Marinaro third at 174.85.