Deanna Stellato-Dudek felt the pressure of competing as a world champion at home.
The boisterous Canadian crowd only added to it as she and Maxime Deschamps took the ice on Friday night.
“I actually noticed the difference in volume from our announcement versus everybody else’s. It was that noticeable,” Stellato-Dudek said. “I felt stressed, and just wanted to do well.”
Those nerves hardly showed as the Canadian pair picked up where they left off on home soil, placing first in the short program at Skate Canada International seven months after capturing world championship gold in Montreal.
Skating to a remix of Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love,” Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps scored 73.23 at Scotiabank Centre to kick off their second competition of the season.
“Going out there, being in front of our home crowd, for the first time since Worlds — that was great,” Deschamps said. “We did a lot of stuff …