World champs Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps rank first after short program at Skate Canada

Reigning world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps rocked the house and placed first in the pairs short program at Skate Canada International on Friday.

The Canadians posted a score of 73.23 to kick off their second competition of the season while skating to a remix of Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" at Scotiabank Centre.

Live streaming coverage of the event continues on Saturday at 12:15 p.m. ET (CBCSports.ca. CBC Gem).

Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel of Germany finished second (64.82) and Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore of Australia were third (64.81).

WATCH | Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps lead after short program:

World champions Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps in 1st place after pairs short program at Skate Canada International

Kelly Ann Laurin of Saint-Jerome, Que., and Loucas Ethier of St-Alphonse, Que., ranked last with a score of 52.16.

The rhythm dance and men's short take place Saturday afternoon, followed by the pairs and women's free programs in the evening. The competition wraps up Sunday afternoon with the men's free program and the free dance.

The Grand Prix, the top series in figure skating, consists of six events and a final. Skate Canada is the second of the event this year after the circuit kicked off at Skate America last week.

You can also watch more figure skating coverage on CBC Sports Presents, our weekly show spotlighting the best high-performance athletes from Canada and around the world. Hosted by Brenda Irving, who is joined by Kurt Browning and Carol Lane, the show can be streamed on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.

WATCH | CBC Sports previews Skate Canada International from Halifax:

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