GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Gold Canada.

While the stars of Monday's Olympic free skates were a Russian and an American woman, Canada's deep squad grabbed the team gold medal it so desperately sought.

The top spot was clinched when Gabrielle Daleman finished third behind Russian Alina Zagitova and American Mirai Nagasu in the women's event. That gave Canada 63 points to 58 for the Russians with only the ice dance remaining. The Russians could only pick up a maximum of four points in that discipline.

Just before Daleman's clincher, Patrick Chan won the men's free skate against a weakened field, and with a mediocre performance.

Regardless, Canada's quest for a medal its skaters said they set about winning ever since they wound up second in Sochi was complete with one program remaining.

“I worked my butt off incredibly hard these past four years to get on this team,” Daleman said. “We have such an incredible, strong team, and I'm proud to say we've won and I'm prouder to have been part of it.”

With their team gold medal assured, ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir tie the record for most Olympic medals won by figure skaters with four. Evgeni Plushenko and Gillis Grafstrom also won four apiece.

The United States was third with 53 points heading into the free dance and could still be tied by Italy.

Mikaela Shiffrin's pursuit of gold at the Pyeongchang Olympics will start on a different day — and in a different event, the slalom, which is her forte — than everyone expected.Of course, that's assuming they ever get around to doing any racing at all in Alpine skiing, after each of the first two contests were postponed because of dangerous winds.The latest schedule change came Monday, when the temperature was 5 degrees (minus-15 Celsius) and the women's giant slalom was shelved less than three hours before it was supposed to start. That followed Sunday's postponement of the men's downhill.Now both of those races will be held Thursday, but on different hills. The women will compete at the Yongpyong Alpine Center used for technical races, and the men will be about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away at the Jeongseon Alpine Center used for speed races.The men's super-G, originally set for Thursday, has been switched to Friday.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Goaltender Noora Raty saw Hilary Knight with the puck on her stick and moved to defend against the dangerous American.Knight passed the puck, Kendall Coyne scored the go-ahead goal at 11:29 of the second period on a one-timer and the United States rallied to beat Finland 3-1 to remain perfect when opening an Olympic tournament.“Knighter got there out of the corner, I need to commit to her because she's the best shot in the world,” Raty said. “So for once she actually passed, and hats off to Coyner. She went top shelf. Really nice goal.”Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Dani Cameranesi also scored as the Americans improved to 6-0 all-time in Olympic openers.