Canada wins silver in team figure skating

OLYMPIC DEBUT EVENT

SOCHI, Russia — Kevin Reynolds did an admirable job filling in for Patrick Chan and Canada won a silver medal in the figure skating team competition at the Sochi Olympics.

Reynolds landed three quad jumps and scored 167.92 points to finish second in the men's free skate, giving Canada an insurmountable lead over the bronze-winning Americans with two skates to go.

"I'm feeling really good after this performance," said Reynolds, who had his season disrupted by difficulties finding skates that fit his feet properly.

"Considering that I didn't have any experience in the first half of the Grand Prix season and only the national championships as a precursor to this, I'm very very happy that I was able to get a relatively strong performance here, the first time at Olympic Games. Handling a different kind of pressure. It's set me up well for the rest of the week."

Host Russia clinched its first gold medal of the Games later in the women's free skate, when Yulia Lipnitskaya finished first and Canada's Kaetlyn Osmond was fifth.

In the event-closing ice dance free skate, Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir finished second to American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Russia finished with a dominant 75 of a possible 80 points. Canada had 65, five more than the U.S.

The 23-year-old Reynolds replaced three-time world champion Chan in the long program, so that Chan could focus on his individual event later in the Games.

Chan opened the event with a third-place finish in the men's short.