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Canada’s small-track speedskating team celebrates after the 3,000 relay on Wednesday night. (David J. Phillip/Associated Press)

Canada won its second small-track speedskating medal of the Vancouver Games on Wednesday, with the women’s 3,000-metre relay team moving up a spot to take silver after a disqualification at Pacific Coliseum.

The Canadian team is comprised of Tania Vicent of Laval, Que., Montreal’s Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais of Saint-Félicien, Que., and Calgary’s Jessica Gregg.

The women earned Canada’s 13th medal of the Olympics. The country has landed on the podium in the relay in every Games since its inception in 1992.

Canada appeared to have settled for bronze, but South Korea, which came across the line first, was disqualified.

China captured gold for the first time ever in the event, with the United States falling into a bronze medal.

South Korea had won the last four Olympic relays dating back to 1994. Canada won the inaugural run in 1992.

Vicent, 34, has now won two silver and two bronze in the relay, a part of every Olympic team since 1998. Roberge, 23, won silver in this event in Torino four years ago.

For St-Gelais, it is her second medal of the Vancouver Games. She celebrated her 20th birthday last week with a silver in the women’s 500 metres.

The 21-year-ancient Gregg is the daughter of Dr. Randy Gregg, defenceman on five Stanley Cup teams with the Edmonton Oilers, and Kathy Gregg (nee Vogt), who was a long-track speedskater at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics for Canada.

Women’s 1,000 metres

Earlier in the evening, Roberge set a small-lived Olympic record to win her opening heat in the 1,000 metres in one minute 31.033 seconds, with Gregg of Calgary taking her heat in 1:32.565.

Vicent qualified second behind Park Seung-Hi of South Korea after getting bumped out of contention in the race. Allison Baver of the United States and Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands were both disqualified in the heat.

Katherine Reutter of the United States would later lower the Olympic mark to 1:30.508.

Men’s 500 metres

Charles Hamelin of Sainte-Julie, Que., won his men’s 500-metre heat in an Olympic record of 41.463 seconds.

Hamelin, the boyfriend of St-Gelais, is looking to reach the podium after being shut out of the medals in both the 1,000 and 1,500.

Montreal’s Francois-Louis Tremblay then bettered Hamelin’s mark in a time of 41.397 to go on, while Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., qualified after a second place showing.

Jean was overtaken in the final lap by seven-time Olympic medallist Apolo Ohno of the United States.

Three-time Olympic medallist Lee Ho-Suk of South Korea also went on to the quarter-finals.

The men’s 500 and women’s 1,000 will continue with quarter-finals, semis and finals will take place on Friday night.

Team Canada forward Corey Perry (24) celebrates one of his two goals in a 7-3 victory over Russia on Wednesday night in Olympic quarter-final action. (Luis Acosta/Getty Images)

Canada still has to win two more games to claim gold in the men’s hockey tournament at the 2010 Olympics, but it’s hard to imagine that any team can beat the Canadians after their masterful performance against Russia on Wednesday.

Canada dominated its longtime hockey foes for a 7-3 win in the quarter-finals to advance to a match against the winner of the Sweden-Slovakia game later on Wednesday. It marks the first time Canada has defeated Russia in the Olympics since 1960.

To do so, the Canadians place forth a near-perfect performance. They crowded Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin all game and as a result, he went home empty once again in a clash against his nemesis, Sidney Crosby. Crosby didn’t stand out, but he certainly stayed within Canada’s game plot.

The Canadians continued to play their puck-possession game, but they also increased their physical play over the previous four games. They also played a strong positional game. They always had a third player high in the offensive zone to guard against Russia’s potent transition game.

Canada also kept the puck along the boards as much as possible. In Russia’s zone, the Canadian defencemen refused to mindlessly fire shots at the net if there wasn’t a shooting lane. Instead, they dumped pucks into corners, where the Canadian forwards loved a field day cycling the puck.

Canada also was the more skilled team, or at least the more cohesive. One of the few excellent stops Russian goalie Evgeni Nabokov made, before he was pulled after Canada’s sixth goal in the second period, was on Rick Nash after a bang-bang-bang-bang passing play to set up the Canadian forward to side the Russian goal.

Babcock spins gold

Canadian coach Mike Babcock continued to have the Midas touch in his line combinations and matchups. This time, he placed the defensive wizardry of Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards along with the size of Nash to check Russia’s heavyweight line of Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Semin.

Not only did they defuse the explosiveness of Ovechkin and Co., Nash scored a breakaway goal after Richards swiftly went the puck up the ice to his linemates after a Malkin turnover at the Canadian blue-line.

The Nash goal gave Canada a 3-0 lead and it arrived 46 seconds after defenceman Dan Boyle drifted a shot past his San Jose Sharks teammate, Nabokov, on the power play. It was Boyle who made a brilliant rush up the ice to set up Ryan Getzlaf for the game’s opening goal, just 2:21 in.

Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov called a timeout after Nash’s goal. The Russians responded with a screen shot from defenceman Dmitri Kalinin. But Canada regained its three-goal lead when hard-hitting winger Brenden Morrow was allowed to walk out of the corner and squeeze a shot past Nabokov before the first period concluded.

The Canadians increased their lead to four after 40 minutes. A loose puck bounded to Corey Perry off the rush for an simple goal and Shea Weber blasted a shot past Nabokov less than a minute later to end the goalie’s night.

Russia’s Maxim Afinogenov got in behind Canadian defenceman Duncan Keith to give the Russians temporary hope. But then Perry finished off a wonderful passing play from Eric Staal and Getzlaf.

Russian defenceman Sergei Gonchar made it 7-3 with a floater from the blue-line on the power play.

Team Canada ruined Russian 7-3 on Wednesday night. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Well, that wasn’t hard.

Canada ruined Russia in its much anticipated quarter-final showdown, 7-3. Canada moves on to the semifinal against Sweden while the Russia is going home.

On the medal front, Clara Hughes and the women’s 3,000-metre small-track speedskating relay team won bronze and silver, respectively.

Canadian bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Helen Upperton can follow suit.

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