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All that pressure — at the world figure skating championships, at a home worlds, inside a citadel of hockey — drained away.

“Super happy that it’s over,’’ Stellato-Dudek gasped.

Well, hardly over. This was only the pairs short program on Wednesday afternoon at the Bell Centre. The long program is still to come Thursday.

But Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps are way up on top, nearly four points clear of the reigning world champions from Japan, five-plus points above the defending silver medallists from Italy. Sitting awfully pretty.

This is in many ways an inconceivable pairs team — she’s 40, he’s 32 — although hardly a chump-change duo; they were fourth at the world championships a year ago. It is a rather crazy partnership that arguably shouldn’t have worked, certainly not to such a grandiose level.

“I think this was our best short program of the year,’’ bubbled Stellato-Dudek, the one-time U.S. singles skater who took a 16-year injury-driven break from the sport, got married, worked as a licensed esthetician and resurfaced as a flashy, time-defying pairs performer. “I’m very happy that we could give the audience a good ride.’’

Rode them right up out of their seats.

“Oh, oh, it was really special,’’ Deschamps chimed in. “While we were getting prepared for this, we knew it was going to be reallyÌý±ô´Ç³Ü»å.’â¶Ä™

Only afterward, when the 77.48 first-place marks blinked up on the scoreboard, could Stellato-Dudek truly savour the moment, even as the blood was still fizzing in her veins.

“It’s important to recognize that I’m way more nervous for this event than I have been for others because it’s a home worlds and also I know a lot of people in the audience, including some people who never watch me skate and they’re here watching me skate, so I want them to think I’m cool.

“Important to recognize that,’’ the diminutive and — how to put this? — young-middle-aged Stellato-Dudek continued, of the thumping in her heart, the flick of panic before the team’s “Oxygene’’ music (from Cirque de Soleil, a tribute to the host city) began. “And then to release it, let it go. But it needs to be said and it needs to be put there. I definitely was very nervous, then tried to take things down and remain calm and remember my keys for the performance.’’

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were met with a semi standing ovation when they merely took their starting position.

“Our starting pose is really hard for me, I’m bent over backwards,’’ Stellato-Dudek said. “So I’m looking at the Bell Centre logo and just trying to keep my balance, to be totally honest. But it went pretty quickly after that because there are so many musical cues you have to hit and they’re immediate. Then you get right back into the program like you do every day.’’

Except, as she admitted to reporters last week, in complete consternation with herself, she was so damn sick of making mistakes in clutch moments, which is rather a fact of figure skating. Everybody performs clean at practice, it’s under the bright lights, in front of the judges, where stuff falls apart, even if that falling apart is just one under-rotated jump or a wobbly landing on a throw.

None of that happened on this day, which began with a bodacious Level 4 twist that drew a fat score of 8.14 (heavy 2.14 grade of execution), through faultless side-by-side triple toes, an above-reproach throw triple loop and Level 4s across the rest of the program, spins, step sequence, forward inside death spiral and lifts.

It was the most emotional performance of the season, both agreed.

The scores would have been tighter had Riku Miura not under-rotated a triple toe. The Japanese couple’s signature lift, with Ryuichi Kihara heaving from his knees, which requires tremendous strength, was gorgeous.

Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii are in third place, having reverted to their 2023 short program in the wake of a setback sixth-place finish at the European championships, a title won by the other Italians, Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise, who were eighth Wednesday.

It might all change in the blink of a three-turn, of course. The second-ranked Canadian pair, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, wouldn’t necessarily be thrilled with ninth. They finished sixth in 2023, after all, had a gold and a silver to show from this Grand Prix season, and were second to Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps at the Canadian championships in January. Their short program, performed to “River’’ by Bishop Briggs, earned a score of 64.83, shy of their season best 65.97.

They haven’t actually been together long, yoked by Alison Purkiss in 2022 when Michaud found himself partnerless upon the retirement of Evelyn Walsh. Their cause wasn’t helped Wednesday when an opening triple twist was adjudged only a Level 1, meaning just one of the required four features of the element had been accomplished cleanly. But they claimed to be happy with their performance.

“We knew that having a home worlds would be a different experience, a once-in-a-lifetime experience,’’ said Pereira, a 20-year-old from Milton. “To skate a short program like that and to feel the energy and the atmosphere of the crowd is so amazing.

“Definitely some nerves. We always try to keep things light (while waiting to begin). That’s kind of what bonded us at the start, just our outgoing energy.’’

Skating third in the fourth flight didn’t give a great amount of time to freak out between warm-up and action, a lull “where things can go sideways’’, said Michaud, a 27-year-old from Brantford, Ont.

The first Canadian pair to take the ice, Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, received a rousing welcome and clearly thrived on it, putting forth an energetic performance to “All Right Now’’ — oddball music for this sport — and scoring a season-best 60.18 for 14th place. They’re only 18 and 23 years old, tons of entertainment, not yet refined. They made the cut for Thursday night’s free skate, though.

Not much time in between to recharge.

Stellato-Dudek: “I will spend it in my bed at the hotel.’’