Canadians win ice dancing gold

(CNN) -- A day after the disheartening loss of its star-studded team in the men's hockey preliminaries, Canada got a warm boost when the pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won ice dancing gold Monday night.

Leading after two rounds, the duo scored a 110.42 in the free dance for a 221.57 total and the title. The gold was the fifth for Canada in these Winter Olympics.

The pair, which has been skating together since 1997, edged the U.S. team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White (215.74). Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin (207.64) were third.

"We're just so proud to be Canadian and to have won on home ice," Virtue said.

Moir said he and his partner have a special connection to Davis and White, whom they train with.

"We knew they would be our biggest competition all year long."

The Americans said the fact they had won silver hadn't sunk in yet and they were ecstatic about the way they skated.

"We had three great programs so we are very happy," White said.

Team ski jumping

A giant leap from Gregor Schlierenzauer gave Austria a sensational gold medal in the men's team ski jumping competition in Whistler on Monday.

The 20-year-old -- already a winner of two bronze medals in the individual jumping events -- nearly sat down on his landing and just managed to avoid touching the ground with his hand to ensure his jump of 146.5 meters remained valid.

The giant leap made up for the fact that style points were lost due to the awkward landing -- and helped Austria claim a comfortable victory over Germany, who took the silver.

The Austrian quartet of Schlierenzauer, Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern, collected an Olympic record points total of 1107.9.

Germany's total of 1035.8 gave them the silver with Norway taking the bronze medal with a total of 1030.3 points.

Cross-country skiing

Norway's Petter Northug produced a devastating late burst to make up for individual disappointment by claiming victory in the men's team sprint.

Northug had been roundly criticized by Norwegian media for failing to find his form in the Games so far, but his class shone through as he overhauled Germany's Axel Teichman in the final race to the line.

Along with compatriot Oeystein Pettersen, the Norwegians claimed gold in a time of 19 minutes and one second.

Teichman and Tim Tscharnke won the silver for Germany with Russian pair Nikolay Morilov and Alexey Petukhov taking the bronze.

There was a similar outcome to the women's team sprint, but this time it was the Germans who powered through late on, courtesy of Claudia Nystad.

Nystad, who was partnered by Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, overtook Sweden's Anna Haag at the death to steal the gold medal by just 0.6 seconds with Russia claiming the bronze.

Ice hockey

Tournament favorites the United States are through to the women's final after crushing Sweden 9-1 in the first semifinal -- avenging their 2006 semifinal defeat at the hands of the same opponents.

Monique Lamoureux scored a hat-trick as the United States reached their first Olympic final since 2002.

The Canadian women overtook Finland 5-0, and will match up against the U.S. team in the gold medal contest on Friday.