Canadian Trail: How Canada did today at the Olympics

By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports

In a remarkable display of perseverance, an ailing Alex Beaulieu-Marchand earned 92.40 points on his second run for bronze in men's slopestyle to secure Canada's 16th medal of the Winter Games in South Korea.

Four days ago, the Quebec City skier's prospects to compete at a high level, let alone reach the podium, weren't good as he missed practice with a sore left knee and lingering back soreness, possibly suffered on the flight to Pyeongchang. The 23-year-old also suffered a concussion in December while training for the Dew Tour.

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Beaulieu-Marchand has made big strides after placing 12th in slopestyle at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

In the medal standings, Norway has widened its lead with 26, while Germany is second with 18 and Canada sits third with 16.

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Here's how other Canadians fared on Sunday:

Freestyle skiing

In his Olympic debut, Olivier Rochon placed fifth in men's aerials with 98.11 points at Phoenix Snow Park.

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With two medal favourites eliminated, the 28-year-old native of Gatineau, Que., attempted a back lay-triple full-full but couldn't land the most difficult jump among the final six competitors. Medals are handed out based solely on the final run.

Canada has been held off the podium in every Games since 1994, when two Canadians, Lloyd Langlois and Philippe LaRoche, captured silver and bronze, respectively, in Lillehammer, Norway.

In other slopestyle action, Teal Harle of Campbell River, B.C., scored 90.00 points in his final run in slopestyle for a fifth-place finish at Phoenix Snow Park. Teammate Evan McEachran was right behind in sixth (89.40).

Men's hockey

Former New York Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin led Canada to a quarter-final berth with a 19-save shutout in a 4-0 victory over host Korea in its final game of the preliminary round.

Christian Thomas, Eric O'Dell, Max Lapierre and Gilbert Brule scored their first goals of the tourney for Canada, which ended the qualifying round as the best second-place team with a 2-1 record. The Canadians join the three group winners in advancing directly to the quarter-finals, where they will face Finland should the Finns prevail against Korea in Tuesday's qualification-round game.

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Women's curling

Searching for answers just a few days ago, Rachel Homan has strung together two straight wins. The Ottawa skip scored a triple in the ninth end against Switzerland and stole a single in the 10th for a come-from-behind 10-8 victory.

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Tied for sixth place with the United States, Canada (2-3) needs to move into the top four to secure a playoff berth. Sweden (5-0) tops the standings, followed by Japan and South Korea (4-1), and China and Britain (3-3). Homan and company (who received a phone call from Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock) will face Japan on Monday.

Speed skating

The Canadian trio of Jordan Belchos, Ted-Jan Bloemen and Denny Morrison qualified for the D final in men's team pursuit with a time of three minutes,41.73 seconds, which was nearly two-and-a-half seconds behind South Korea's leading time of 3:39.29.

Nao Kodaira of Japan was timed in 36.94 seconds on Sunday, becoming the first woman to race under 37 seconds at sea level.

Elsewhere, Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., was 10th and Winnipeg's Heather MacLean was 14th in the women's 500, while Canada's men's pursuit team finished seventh in qualifying and failed to advance to the quarter-finals.

Men's curling

Kevin Koe's Calgary-based rink, which reeled off four straight wins in South Korea, suffered its second straight loss, 8-6 to Peter De Cruz and Switzerland at Gangneung Curling Centre.

Fresh off a 5-2 loss to unbeaten Sweden on Saturday, Koe paid for a missed shot early as Swiss vice-skip Benoit Schwarz scored four points in the opening end. At 4-2, second-place Canada is tied with Switzerland entering Monday's matchup against the United States (2-3) at 12:05 a.m. ET. The top four teams make the playoffs, with medal games beginning Friday.

Alpine skiing

The men's giant slalom was all about Austria's Marcel Hirscher, whose winning margin of 1.27 seconds is the largest in the event at an Olympics in 50 years. Hirscher, who broke his left ankle in August and missed his off-season training on snow, will attempt to become the first male skier with three gold medals at a Winter Games in a half-century in the slalom, his specialty. The 28-year-old earlier won the alpine combined.

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Hirscher was fourth in the giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and four years later in Sochi, Russia.

Four Canadians placed in the top 30 on Sunday, led by 26-year-old Erik Read of Calgary in a tie for 11th. Trevor Philip (18th), Philip Brown (27th) and James Crawford (29th) were the others.

Cross-country

Minus Alex Harvey, Canada's Len Valjas, Graeme Killick, Russell Kennedy and Knute Johnsgaard finished ninth in the field of 14 in the men's 4x10-kilometre relay in a time of one hour 36 minutes 45.9 seconds.

Harvey reportedly withdrew from the relay to focus on the 50-kilometre mass start classic on Feb. 24. The native of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., is also scheduled to compete in Wednesday's team sprint with Valjas.

Harvey, 29, has had two top-10 finishes at these Games, finishing eighth in the skiathlon and a season-worst 32nd in the sprint classic. On Friday, he was seventh in the 15 km freestyle.

Bobsleigh

Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., and Alexander Kopacz of London, Ont., completed the first two of four runs in two-man bobsled in a combined time of one minute 38.49 seconds to sit second at Alpensia Sliding Centre. The third and fourth runs go Monday at 6:15 a.m. ET and 8 a.m., respectively.

Kripps, 31, is a medal favourite in Pyeongchang after claiming the overall World Cup title this season. He won a gold medal, three silvers and a bronze, never finishing lower than fourth in the circuit's eight races.

Canada's other two entries – Jesse Lumsden/Nick Poloniato and Chris Spring/Lascelles Brown — are tied for 10th in 1:38.96.

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