LAVAL, Que. — Coach Carol Lane wiped away tears as Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier stepped off the Place Laval ice Saturday night.

Way down in sixth after a gaffe in Friday's short program at Skate Canada International, Gilles and Poirier bounced back with the best long program of their career to capture bronze.

The 26-year-olds scored 120.02 points — the second-highest on the night — for their romantic free dance to Govardo's cover of Don McLean's "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)," for a total score of 186.97.

"All of us put so much time and energy and devotion into our craft and this program itself, this is our baby, we built this from the ground up," Gilles said. "We've created a standard for ourselves, and I think going out and not having that (Friday) was a little disappointing, and we all felt that heaviness."

"It was this big weight lifted. . . It was a great moment for all of us."

Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won the free dance (120.27) en route to capturing gold with 200.76 points. Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov claimed the silver.

It was Lane who found the cover of Don McLean's popular 1971 song Gilles and Poirier used for their free dance. British acoustic folk duo Jack Rose and Dominik Sky make up Govardo.

"The first half of this program has not changed since (Govardo) sent us the original track. We were so captivated by the emotions that they brought into the first half, we were like 'Oh my god this is stunning.' But after we knew we needed to make a tempo change," Gilles said.

Missing was an up-tempo segment in the middle of the program, and so Lane called up the musicians who composed an addition to the song for the Canadians' program.

"Carol just had this idea in her head of what it should be, and she actually sang it over the phone," Gilles said.

"She drummed it," Poirier added.

"Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-bing-bong-bing-bong," Gilles mimicked. "They were on Skype, and when they heard it, they were 'OK, we understand what you want, it's more of a constant river, it's this driving softness, this constant rhythm.'"

"We call that piece either the 'rapture bit,' or if you want to go more literal, the painting scene where the creative energy and the artist really come together and make something, and there's this flow of energy that's moving between them that just can't be stopped," Poirier added.

McLean wrote "Vincent" as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh. The opening line references his painting "The Starry Night," and was reflected in the skaters' costumes. Poirier was dressed as the painter, Gilles in the midnight blue and gold of a night sky.

Gilles, from Toronto, and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., were eighth at the Pyeongchang Olympics, then sixth a month later at the world championships in Milan.

With two-time Olympic champs Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir expected to retire, Gilles and Poirier would love to claim Canada's top ice dance spot. Saturday night's program was a big step in the right direction.

"These are the kind of scores we want to be getting if we want to make the statement we want to make this year," Poirier said. "I think this is just the next step."