CALGARY - Ben Donnelly still has the has the gum wrapper featuring one of his childhood heroes, Denny Morrison, at home, right next to the signed picture from Canadian speedskater he received in his youth.

On Saturday afternoon, the 19-year-old Donnelly helped Canada win gold in the first men's team pursuit race of the World Cup season, in a time of three minutes 39.32 seconds.

"It was just a great opportunity to get up and skate with these guys in the team pursuit and I was pretty happy with the outcome," said Donnelly.

The win was a little unexpected for some with Morrison sidelined with an injury he sustained during the summer. Many felt the team could still compete for a medal, but it would be a lot more difficult to win gold.

"I thought about it on the podium and said to the guys, probably a lot of the countries counted us out when Denny got hurt," said Jordan Belchos of Toronto. "And we got this junior guy coming in, first World Cup, and he stepped up and delivered, and me and Ted carried our load and we won."

The third skater in the trio, Ted-Jan Bloemen — originally from the Netherlands, but now calls Calgary home — won his second medal of the weekend after taking bronze Friday in the men's 5,000-metre race.

"That felt awesome, I love doing team pursuit," said Bloemen. "I had to dig really deep and I wasn't thinking about the results during the race."

The team's coach, Bart Schouten, was equally pleased with the result, saying that it shows just how many good skaters Canada has right now.

"You're thinking (before the race), OK Denny is injured we might have a weaker team, but then you see these other two guys get better, and there's a junior who actually steps in," said Schouten.

He also added that part of the team's plan for this weekend was for rookie Donnelly to get some World Cup experience, because he won't be heading over to Europe with the team later this season.

"We thought it was important for a junior to get a chance to skate with these seniors. We think in three years he can be there at the Olympics, so we want to include him in training."

"That was basically our prime goal here, to give the junior an opportunity to skate with the big guys, get experience in front of the home crowd, deal with the pressure of skating at home and he came through real, real well."

Because there won't be a team pursuit race at the next World Cup stop in Salt Lake City, UT., likely replacements for Donnelly when the team races again in Europe are either Stefan Waples of Winnipeg or Olivier Jean, from Lachenaie, Que.

The Canadian women's team of Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidmann and Josie Spence, from Kamloops, B.C., finished just out of the medals in fourth place.

Long-track speedskater Heather Richardson-Bergsma of the United States set a world record in the women's 1,000 Saturday.

Richardson-Bergsma posted a new mark of one minute 12.51 seconds. Her American teammate Brittany Bowe had lowered the world record just minutes earlier with a time of 1:12.54.

Bowe had held the previous record 1:12.58 since 2013.

In the men's team sprint, Canada was disqualified after a member fell out side the exchange area. The Netherlands won the race in a time of 1:18.79.

In the women's team sprint, Canada placed third in a time of 1:28.39. Japan won the race in a time of 1:26.82.

Other Canadian results from Saturday's B Division races saw Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa finish second in the women's 1000 in a time of 1:14:72. Kaylin Irvine of Calgary finished 13th, Kali Christ of Regina was 17th and Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask. Was 19th.

In the men's 1000 B Division, Richard MacLennan of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Was the top Canadian, finishing fifth in a time of 1:08:43. Finishing just behind him in seventh place, William Dutton of Humboldt, Sask.

In the men's 1000 Vincent De Haitre of Cumberland, Ont. was the top Canadian, finishing eighth in a time of 1:08.11.