SEMMERING, Austria — Canada's Erin Mielzynski is back in the top 10, racing to a ninth-place finish in a World Cup slalom.

The Toronto skier had a tough start to the season, but pushed hard on Thursday's second run to climb three spots into ninth place.

"It feels amazing to be back in the top 10, but it felt really incredible to be comfortable on my skis, and be able to start putting my race plan into action," Mielzynski said. "I finally felt like myself, and with that, I know I can push myself harder.

"Today, I stood in the start and imagined that all of my loved ones were at the bottom and I was going to ski for them. I'm really happy to head into the New Year with this result under my belt."

Olympic slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin used a spectacular final run to win the night race for her third World Cup triumph in three days.

Enjoying a slim opening-run lead, the American made several mistakes and was 0.33 seconds off the lead at the final split time before accelerating to win the race by 0.64 ahead of Veronika Velez Zuzulova of Slovakia. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was 1.54 back in third.

After winning two giant slaloms the previous days, Shiffrin continued her dominance in slalom by landing her 23th career win in the discipline.

Shiffrin extended her lead in the overall standings to 215 points over defending champion Lara Gut of Switzerland, who usually doesn't compete in slaloms.

Quebec's Marie-Michele Gagnon finished the first run in 14th-place. Gagnon went onto to straddle a gate early in the second run, and was disqualified.

— With files from The Associated Press