GANGNEUNG, Korea, Republic Of -- Canada's Patrick Chan finished ninth in his final Olympic appearance.
Skating to Jeff Buckley's haunting "Hallelujah," the three-time world champion from Toronto scored 173.42 points in his final competitive program, and 263.43 overall. He opened with a beautiful quadruple toe loop, but tripled his second quad in a shaky skate.
Chan was sixth after Friday's short program after he fell on his triple Axel.
The Canadian, who confirmed on Saturday that he is retiring, ends his Olympic career with a silver in the men's event from the 2014 Games and a team gold won earlier in Pyeongchang.
He said he went into Saturday's skate with "no fear."
"This is the best Olympic experience out of the three, because I was in control," he said. "I was not dying out of breath."
It was a 1-2 finish for Japan, with two-time world champion Yuzuru Hanyu earning 206.17 points in the free skate for a total of 317.85 and the gold medal.
Shoma Uno took silver with a total score of 306.90, while Spain's Javier Fernandez of Spain was third with 305.24.
A day after he blew up in the short program, 18-year-old Nathan Chen of the U.S. climbed up from 17th place to finish fifth, landing an Olympic-record six quads in his long program.
The 27-year-old Chan took a season off after his heartbreaking silver medal at the Sochi Olympics, but his comeback hasn't been what he envisioned.
"My career has had a lot of challenges like this and I think I can learn a lot more from having a lot of ups and downs," he said. "But today my goal was to land both Axels and get them solid. I am happy I landed on my feet on both of those."
Chan, who helped Canada win gold in the team event earlier in the Games, was responsible for launching the quad brigade as one of the first skaters to include two quads in his long program. But once so dominant, he returned from his year off to find his competition had left him eating their high-flying dust.
Four of the six skaters in Saturday's group planned 15 quads between them.
Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., was 12th, finishing with a total score of 255.43.
