COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. - Canada's Dara Howell won silver at a slopestyle World Cup event Saturday, while teammate Alex Beaulieu-Marchand took a bronze.

Howell finished second in the women's event with a score of 85.8 behind gold-medal winner Kari Herman of the United States, who scored 87.0.

Howell, from Huntsville, Ont., said she tried to treat the event like a training run.

"I know I've been training well and I know that the tricks I have are all tricks I know how to do, so when it came to the contest I just thought of it as another training run," she said. "I mean I was still really nervous and I still had all that going on, but I just tried to have fun and just ski."

Montreal's Kaya Turski, the reigning X-Games champion, finished fifth at 81.2.

On the men's side, Beaulieu-Marchand earned his first World Cup medal despite falling on the first of the two-run final.

The Quebec City native scored 90.4 for bronze, behind gold-medallist James Woods of Britain (93.4) and Australia's Russ Henshaw (92.2).

"I'm super happy, I mean I wasn't expecting anything, I was just going out there to ski and have fun and it worked out for me so I couldn't be happier," said Beaulieu-Marchand. "And, I'm super stoked that I might be have a chance to go to the Olympics, hopefully I'll get another podium."

Alex Bellemare of St. Boniface, Que., also qualified for finals, finishing 12th with a score of 63.

The event was one of five competitions for Canadian athletes to earn eligibility to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Athletes need at least two podium finishes out of the five events to be considered for early selection.

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