There's nothing routine with the ice dance team of Madeline Edwards and Zhao Kai Pang when it comes to succeeding at the Canadian Tire national figure skating championships.

The pair tallied their fourth national title, capturing the junior ice dance title in Mississauga, Ont.

Edwards, of Port Moody, and Pang, of Burnaby, have won the Canadian juvenile, pre-novice and novice titles, and entered last week's event with a lot of confidence on the heels of last month's Skate Canada Challenge win.

They were also looking to improve on last year's junior national debut, where they finished second.

Trailing after the short program, the duo dazzled the judges with their four-minute free dance to catapult into first place with a score of 145.25 - less than a point more than Mackenzie Bent and Garrett MacKeen of Eastern Ontario.

"They had the skate of their lives," said B.C. Centre of Excellence ice dance co-coach Aaron Lowe. "Maddie and Zhao Kai's free dance was just at a much higher level."

It was the second time in a month that Edwards and Pang had edged Bent and MacKeen.

The gold medal also earned the pair a spot on Canada's national team to the junior world championships, Feb. 25 to March 3 in Milan, Italy.

"Our goal was just to make the junior world team. We haven't set our goals yet," said Pang. "We want to skate faster and have more of a presence on the ice. We really want to look like we belong on a world stage."

Senior men's skater Kevin Reynolds placed second behind Patrick Chan.

Reynolds, 22, was extremely close in the free skate, where he posted 175.94 points to Chan's 179.12.

sports@burnabynow.com