Malinin was also flawless and so electric that a roaring TD Garden crowd stood to applaud early in his final element, a step sequence. The result was a new international personal best score of 110.41, topping his old mark by 3.16 and giving him a lead of 3.32 over Kagiyama going into Saturday’s free skate (8 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock ).

U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin plans to gauge his potential risk versus reward before deciding whether to attempt an entire ambitious programme of seven quadruple jumps at the world championships this week.