Malinin's short program, with "Running" by NF as musical accompaniment, earned an ovation so loud it could have been heard in Worcester. After landing his two quadruple jumps and a triple Axel, Malinin launched into footwork and motioned the crowd to get louder -- and it did.
Skating after Malinin, Kagiyama's introspective program to "The Sound of Silence" was entirely different, but also earned impressive applause. He landed two quadruple jumps of his own, a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination and a quadriple Salchow.
Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov is third heading into the free program. Kévin Aymoz, a French skater who has struggled with consistency, is fourth.
The two other American entries had performances to be proud of.
On Tuesday, Andrew Torgashev was the only American male skater to show up for the first of two practices. Jason Brown and Malinin saved their energy for their 10 p.m. practice. Torgashev showed up for both.
"I mean, I'm here to skate, so why not skate?" Torgashev said Tuesday.
On Thursday, the extra practice paid off. Scoring a personal-best short program score of 87.27, the 23-year-old Torgashev found himself in eighth heading into Saturday's free skate. He landed a quadruple toe loop, triple Axel and a triple flip-triple toe loop combination.
"My goal for this competition and any competition is to make the all of those run-throughs, all of that soreness, sweat and tears, all worth it," said Torgashev. "This short today was worth it."
Brown, the crowd favorite, mesmerized the TD Garden crowd with his "The Legend of Tarzan" short program. After struggling with equipment issues for much of the season, the seven-time US World team member squeaked out the ending of his triple Axel and popped the second jump of his triple-triple combination into a double. His score of 84.72 left him 12th.
Despite the errors, Brown was excited for the opportunity to skate again on the Garden ice, where he had his breakthrough moment at the 2014 US Championships. As was the case11 years ago, the crowd roared and gave him a standing ovation.