LEVI, Finland -- American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin easily won the World Cup slalom opener Saturday, beating reigning Olympic champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany by more than a second to send an immediate message to her rivals ahead of the Sochi Games. Cheap Nike Shoes China . The 18-year-old slalom world champion led by half a second after the first run and raced seamlessly at the top of the hill in the second to extend her advantage, overcoming a mistake near the end to clock a combined time of 1 minute, 55.07 seconds. "Im really happy with how the day went and Im also really excited because it looks like there are some pretty fast girls in the back of the pack," Shiffrin said. "Im excited for the Olympics for sure but there are a couple of races between now and then, so hopefully I can just keep this going." Hoefl-Riesch, who was in a tie for third place after the first run, skied nearly flawlessly in the second but still finished 1.06 seconds behind in second place. Last years overall World Cup champion Tina Maze of Slovenia, who struggled in the giant slalom opener in Soelden last month, was third, 1.61 back. Shiffrin emerged as a major star in the discipline last season by winning both the World Cup slalom title and the world championship race, making her one of the major medal favourites for the Sochi Olympics. Her dominant display on Saturday did little to lower expectations on the teenager -- although Shiffrin thinks theres still plenty of room for improvement. "Every day there is something you can do better," Shiffrin said. "Im going to go back and study my skiing from today and study all the other girls to see who is doing what well and try to get better." Another 18-year-old also made a name for herself, as Christina Ager of Austria finished fourth in her first career World Cup start. Ager started with bib No. 53 but was fifth after the first run -- in part because of favourable winds -- and then missed the podium by just 0.07 seconds. Hoefl-Riesch has won three World Cup slaloms in Levi and made the podium for the seventh time here. "It was a great day for me. I had a good feeling in training already," she said. "Its always really special for me here because of my first win many years ago and because of my many good results here." Maze said she was happy to get back to skiing fast after the disappointing result in Soelden, where she struggled with the high expectations after her dominance last season. "I got a lot of pressure in Soelden race, it was the start of the season so it was not easy to handle all of this pressure so I felt really empty," Maze said. "But at the end I realized its nothing important, the only thing important is to ski fast." Marlies Schild of Austria, the slalom specialist who injured her knee in December 2012, returned for the first time since recovering fully but was already well behind Shiffrin in the first round by the time she missed a gate and skied out. Still, Schild was just happy to finally be able to ski without feeling any effects of the injury. "Of course I wanted to race a second run but yeah, its not so bad at all," Schild said. "Im in a good shape, I have no pain anymore and thats very important for me and I just have to wait, I think, to get a good feeling." Four-time former overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn skipped the Levi meet and will make her debut in the speed events in Beaver Creek, Colorado, after recovering from a right knee injury sustained in a crash in February. "She is back and shes strong," Shiffrin said of her teammate. "Im impressed with how strong she is. ... I dont think anybody should count her out thats for sure." For Shiffrin, the Olympic gold medal is clearly main goal for this season, although she received another memorable prize on Saturday. In a first for this year, organizers presented the winner with a live reindeer from the local Lapland region. Shiffrin named the 6-month-old reindeer Rudolf, although she wont be allowed to take him home with her. "I scared him off a bit when I jumped off the podium to meet him but I think we will be getting along," Shiffrin said. "I hope that when he gets older and trained I can go for a ride on a sledge with him." Air Max Outlet . The 27-year-old hit .209 in 86 at-bats last year after missing the 2010 season following surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Cheap Air Max .“I always did my stuff ahead of the deadline. The best deal Ive ever done was the Darryl Sydor deal. We did that at the end of January in 04, and Syd was the missing piece. http://www.chinaairmaxcheap.com/ . The 29-year-old German, the 2011 overall World Cup champion, says she has decided "to end my career now.TORONTO -- Randy Carlyle has been in Morgan Riellys situation before. During his playing days as a defenceman, Carlyle was made a healthy scratch and didnt like the excuse he was given. "They said, Oh maybe its better that you look at the game from a different perspective. I dont think Im going to use that one," the Toronto Maple Leafs coach said. "I think the best message when you make a decision is you tell the player that you feel the other guys are ahead of him, and thats the truth. Or else you wouldnt make that decision." Rielly could be a healthy scratch Friday night against the New Jersey Devils with defenceman Mark Fraser poised to return after missing 13 games with a left knee injury. The 19-year-old rookie was paired up with John-Michael Liles during Thursdays practice, suggesting hell be out of the lineup. "Im not too worried about it at all," Rielly said. "Its great that (Fraser is) back and healthy. I think its going to help our team a lot." Rielly wasnt hurting the Leafs terribly, though he has been on the ice for 14 goals against this season. Thats second-worst behind only veteran Cody Franson, who has been on for 17. Even though Carlyle didnt necessarily agree with the notion that Rielly was going through some growing pains, he could be due for some tough love. "Hes made some mistakes as every member of our hockey club has," Carlyle said. "I dont like to say that the young player, especially a player thats cutting his teeth in the NHL, is experiencing anything other than life in the NHL. We have veteran people that are making the same amount of mistakes or the same type of mistakes and they dont gett the same recognition maybe because they get a pass.dddddddddddd. "What wed like to do is make sure that Morgan understands, as every player has to understand, that in certain situations those mistakes are not ones that were going to tolerate." Rielly acknowledged some deficiencies in his game but brushed them off. "Im not really too concerned about it," he said. "That happens to everybody. But I just got to keep playing well. Im not sure if theres one area of my game that has really been bad or anything like that. Just going to keep working hard here and just keep trying to play a good, team game." The Leafs elected to keep Rielly beyond the nine-game limit that would have allowed them to not burn a year of his entry-level contract. He has now played in 13 of Torontos 15 games and has five assists and a minus-3 rating. Rielly has averaged 17 minutes 49 seconds of ice time. "Hes been put in a situation where hes had to play very well and I think hes done a good job with it," Franson said. "Hes playing against the top two lines all night and hes playing pretty decent-sized minutes. When a 19-year-old kid can come in and play those minutes against those lines and do it like he has, its impressive." But its probably not impressive enough to keep him in the lineup every night if Fraser stays healthy. Captain Dion Phaneuf and Carl Gunnarsson are locks to remain the lineup, while Paul Ranger has shown recent improvement after a long NHL layoff. Fransons offensive abilities keep him in, which makes it a decision between Rielly and Jake Gardiner for who sits out. For now, Rielly appears to be the odd man out. ' ' '