Kitchener, Ont. - Stick to the plan, Joannie Rochette told herself. It pays.

That strategy worked well for the figure skater from Île-Dupas, Que., Friday at Skate Canada when she won the women's short program with the best score of her career, 70 points.

Her previous best was 67.90, when she won the silver medal at the world figure skating championships last season in Los Angeles.

"I'm really excited," Rochette said. "This year, it's my first time in the 70s. Last year it was my first year in the 60s. For a 23-year-old, not bad, eh? ...

It shows me that this program can take me where I want to go."

Kim Yu-Na of South Korea has the world-record short-program score of 76.28, set last week at Skate America.

Rochette has great potential to score even higher because she didn't get the highest level of difficulty on all of her elements.

Coach Manon Perron said she could fix that by ensuring her change of blade edge on a spiral sequence is made clearly enough, and that she hold her final position on a spin longer.

Still, the score put her 6.48 points ahead of second-place Alissa Czisny of the United States, who, coach Julianne Berlin says, is finally learning how to be a champion.

In third place is Mirai Nagasu of the United States with 56.34 points.
Czisny was U.S. champion this year, but finished only 11th at the world championships. Nagasu was U.S. champion in 2008.

Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que., finished fifth of 11 skaters yesterday after stumbling out of the first part of her triple Lutz combination.

Canadian bronze medalist Amélie Lacoste of Delson, Que., finished sixth.

With yesterday's effort, Rochette put to rest the memory of her dismal short program at the Grand Prix in China last month when she finished seventh.

She said yesterday she hadn't followed the plan. Much to her coach's surprise, she attempted a triple Lutz - triple toe loop in the short program, when she had planned only a triple-double.

"We kind of did [have a plan], but I kind of changed it," Rochette said. "I really wanted to challenge myself and I didn't follow the plan. That's when I learned the importance of having a plan and sticking to it. As athletes, we always want challenges, and I always get questions about it [the triple-triple]."

Coach Perron said: "In the short program, you cannot [afford to] make a mistake."

Rochette followed the plan and said she was focused so much on doing each element perfectly, she did not "go all out." When Rochette stepped on the ice to do her tango routine, she said she felt calmer. The crowd cheered loudly every time she landed a jump.

Earlier, two-time world pair champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany tried to put themselves back in the race for an Olympic gold medal yesterday by winning the pair short program at Skate Canada.

Their faces painted like clowns - unusual in competitive skating - they won the short program with 74.16 points, the second highest mark ever attained in the pair short program, behind only the Chinese.

Last week at Skate America, three-time world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China equalled a mark of 74.36 set by their countrymen Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao.

Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov of Russia, who won the junior pairs title in Kitchener in 2005, finished second after making a mistake on a throw.

Canadian champions Jessica Dubé of Drummondville, Que., and Bryce Davison of Huntsville, Ont., are in third place after Dubé singled a triple Salchow.

Former Canadian champions Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mère, Que., and Cody Hay of Dawson Creek, B.C. - in their first competition since March of 2008 and their only Grand Prix event - finished fourth and felt shaky and nervous.

They missed all of last season after Langlois broke an ankle during the summer of 2008, and had two surgeries.

Dubé said she felt her timing was a little too quick going into the triple Salchow. Afterward, Davison said the error set both of them back on their heels.

"We were almost taken by surprise by it [the error,]" he said.

The good news is their triple twist was better than the one they did in Paris, although Dubé said they had been doing better, bigger ones in practice since Paris. They struggled with the triple twist last season.

Langlois and Hay said their short program was their shakiest of the season. And they found a new way to get into trouble. Hay's lace caught on Langlois's skate just before they were to go into a death spiral.

Hay spent a few frantic seconds shaking his leg until it came loose.

"I didn't get it on the first two kicks," Hay said. "I thought we might have to stop, but finally, I got it free." Langlois said she felt nervous on warm-up.

"I just wanted to pop just about everything, but I was trying to stay really aggressive and trust our training."

The new team of Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto finished seventh of eight teams, although Moore-Towers has competed only one previous season in pairs, and that at the junior, not senior, level.