Paralympic Roundup: Canada wins 5 medals Friday, advances to hockey final

Tyler McGregor had four goals and two assists to help Canada’s Paralympic hockey team advance to the gold-medal game of the Beijing Games.

Billy Bridges had a hat trick as Canada routed South Korea 11-0 in a semifinal on Friday.

Canada will play the United States or gold on Saturday (11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT).

The Americans, who have won the gold medal at the last three Paralympic Games, defeated China 11-0 in the other semifinal.

Bridges reached the 50-point plateau at the Paralympics and now has 199 career goals for Team Canada.

Liam Hickey scored and added four assists for Canada and Garrett Riley had his first goal with Team Canada.

Greg Westlake and Anton Jacobs-Webb rounded out the scoring.

Dominic Larocque made one save through the first two periods before giving way to Adam Kingsmill, who made two stops in the third. Canada outshot South Korea 43-3.

Silver on the slopes

Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver, B.C., captured a silver medal in the women’s giant slalom standing event.

Jepsen won second place in a time of two minutes 0.95 seconds.

China’s Zhang Mengqiu won gold in the event, earning her nation’s first-ever para alpine skiing gold.

Germany’s Andrea Rothfuss won bronze.

This is the 22-year-old Jepsen’s sixth career Paralympic medal and second of the Beijing Games.

She previously won a gold in Beijing in the women’s downhill standing event.

Biathlon

Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., captured a silver medal in the men’s 12-kilometre individual standing event.

Arendz finished behind Frances Benjamin Daviet of France in a time of 40 minutes 13 seconds. Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine won bronze.

It’s the 11th Paralympic medal Arendz has collected during his decorated career.

On the women’s side, Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., won a bronze medal in the women’s event. She finished in a time of 49 minutes 3.4 seconds.

Liudmyla Liashenko of the Ukraine captured gold in the event while China’s Zhao Zhiqing won silver.

Hudak, 28, now has won three Paralympic medals in her career.

This was the first medal she’s won at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Para snowboard banked slalom

Canadian Tyler Turner earned a bronze medal in the men’s banked slalom SB-LL1 event,

Turner, of Campbell River, B.C., turned in a time of one minute 12.84 seconds.

China’s Wu Zhongwei and Dutch rider Chris Vos won gold and silver, respectively.

The SB-LL1 category is for snowboarders with moderately affected movement in the knees or legs, the absence of one leg above the knee or two legs below the knee.

The 33-year-old Turner earlier won gold in the men’s snowboard cross event at the Beijing Games.

Wheelchair curling

The Canadian wheelchair team rebounded from a semi-final loss to China earlier in the day to defeat Slovakia 8-3 to capture bronze, equaling its performance from four years ago in PyeongChang.

Jon Thurston scored four in the final end to secure the win for Canada, which has earned a medal in this event since making its debut in 2006.