LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Mellisa Hollingsworth woke up Friday morning to gray skies, drizzle and cast-iron clouds and her first thought was: this doesn't feel like a race day.

It did at the end, however: bouquet of flowers in hand, and World Cup medal after a first-place finish in the women's skeleton event in the second World Cup race of the year.

Amy Gough of Abbotsford, B.C., came in sixth in 1:56.01 while Michelle Kelly of Fort St. John, B.C., was tied for seventh with Kerstir Szymkowiak of Germany, in a time of 1:56.06 that was 1.21 seconds off Hollingsworth's 1:54.85. Gough's result gave her enough podium finishes over 18-months to qualify her for Olympic selection.

It was a lost day for the Canadian men, as the Germans obliterated the field. Frank Rommel finished first in 1:50.88, almost a full half-second ahead of teammate Sandro Steilicke (1:51.36) and Latvia's Martins Dukurs (1:51.37.)

Jon Montgomery of Russell, Manitoba, finished 12th (1:52.33), Jeff Pain of Calgary was 13th (1:52.55) and Michael Douglas of Toronto was 17th, more than two and a half seconds off the pace.

Canada's women have had a strong start to the World Cup season. Friday's results left Hollingsworth atop the points race with 425. Gough, who earned silver in Park City, Utah, last weekend, is third with 386 behind Great Britain's Shelley Rudman. Kelly is fifth, just 34 points behind Gough.

"I knew when Amy (Gough) crossed the line she'd kept her spot and I was going ‘Yes!' inside," said Hollingsworth, of Eckville, Alta.. "That's really exciting. Now we need to work hard as a team together to make sure we stay in the top two nation standings to make sure we get those three spots in the Olympics."

Rudman finished second in 1:55.08 while Marion Trott of Germany placed third in 1:55.13.

Kelly, who was reinstated to the team on the eve of last week's World Cup race in Park City, Utah, spent some time on the leaders platform in the second run after a 57.97 finish. She and Hollingsworth had already qualified.

Gough, who was second in Park City, needed only a top eight finish.

"That's what I came in here wanting to do," said Gough.

Starting fifth in the first race and with a start time of 5.54 seconds that was only ninth-best, Hollingsworth turned in a time of 57.54 seconds and led by .02 seconds over Amy Williams of Great Britain.

That meant Hollingsworth was the final slider in the second race, and with Rudman on the leader's podium after a 57.35-seconds run, Hollingsworth smoothly worked her way down a track that Gough described as being "a bit of washing machine," in 57.31 seconds.

"In training some girls were approaching track record times but it was off today with the rain," said Hollingsworth, who bided her time at the top of the track while every other competitor did their second run.

"I had a lot of opportunities last year to learn how to do that, and kept messing it up," Hollingsworth said, laughing. "But you have to go through your routines and preparation, and that's how it is at the end of the day - how you and your sled work on the track. Yes, you're comparing your times to other people but you have to do your work and let the time be what the time's going to be at the end of the day."

The Germans domination in the men's event was to be expected. They had the four highest speeds in training. Stielicke and Rommel were second and fourth in Park City. Latvia's Martins Dukurs, who finished third after winning in Park City, has also posted strong times and speeds.

But it's the Germans who have Montgomery's attention.

"They're not any better sliders than anybody in this field, they just have better equipment - plain and simple," said Montgomery. "What's going on, we don't know. We'll do our research, plug away and hope that they screw up. We'll battle for any positions they give up because really it's their races at this point. Everybody else is trying to make up ground on them."

The men's two-man and women's bobsleigh competitions are scheduled for Saturday. The men's four-man race goes Sunday.