Heil wins more World Cup gold

The crowd wanted an encore, and Jennifer Heil delivered.

The Spruce Grove, Alta., native dominated the field Saturday night at a World Cup moguls event in Calgary, earning her second gold medal in as many nights and seizing control of the overall standings.

Heil, the defending Olympic champion, made the challenging Canada Olympic Park course look like a beginner's hill, carving through the steep middle section with ease. She finished with whopping 24.96 points, easily beating Aiko Uemura of Japan (24.03) for her 22nd career World Cup medal.

Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic was third with 23.90 points.

Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que., added to Canada's medal haul, capturing a silver medal in the men's event. Bilodeau, who lost a ski en route to a 16th-place finish in Friday's final, finished with 24.70 points Saturday, second to Australia's Dale Begg-Smith (25.25). Russia's Alexandr Smyshlyaev placed third in 24.48.

Heil suggested after Friday's victory that she still had plenty to work on. She has already qualified for the Olympics, leaving her free to tinker with her performance in the weeks leading into the Olympics.

Whatever she tried to fix Saturday worked to near perfection.

"I left a few holes in my performance last night," said Heil. "When I went home and looked at it on video, I really saw that, so my goal was to kind of close those holes.

"The course allowed me to do it pretty easily. The snow was very soft, so it was probably the easiest it's been all week."

Spectacular spill

A few of her teammates might disagree.

Montreal's Chloe Dufour-Lapointe had a spectacular spill after losing control and hitting the second jump off balance. She landed hard, and appeared winded before continuing down the course on her own power, finishing 15th with 5.74 points.

Her crash came moments after Emiko Torito of the U.S., had similar trouble staying balanced at the bottom jump and landed with a thud, sending both poles flying.

Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., didn't crash. He finished 10th with 22.58 points. But after his run, Rousseau admitted he was just trying to stay on his skis, a sensible goal, considering he's still in the mix for an Olympic berth.

"This is very important for me," said Rousseau. "I didn't go for the win today … I wanted to make sure that I was standing on my feet and having perfect turns all the way down, and make sure I have a good score for my qualification.

"Usually I try to win, but today, I was full on the brakes. It was the safest I could go down."

Bilodeau, last year's overall World Cup champion, also made a conservative run, and it cost him the victory. Begg-Smith tore down the course to earn his second straight gold medal, vaulting him into the overall World Cup lead.

"I'm not in my comfort zone on that kind of course," said Bilodeau, who sits third in the overall standings. "I need to slow down before the steep section, and for me, it's something that's really hard.

"When I'm comfortable, I'm 110 per cent out, and you can't do that on this course, or else it's a gamble. And Dale did it."

In other women's action, Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City finished eighth with 22.00 points, while Maxime Dufour-Lapointe was 11th with 20.68. Vancouver's Sylvia Kerfoot placed 14th with 12.22 points.

On the men's side, Maxime Gingras of St-Hippolyte, Que., was eighth with 23.27 points while West Vancouver's Warren Tanner finished 12th with 22.31.