SASKATOON - The grace with which Joannie Rochette glided onto the ice, and the wide smile stretched across her face, no one could have guessed the skater from Ile-Dupas, Que., was still furious at herself for the night before.

But Rochette simply immersed herself in the music and by the time her routine was nearing its end, and with the crowd already on its feet, any lingering anger was long gone.

Rochette captured her fifth consecutive Canadian women's figure skating title Saturday in stunning fashion. The 22-year-old trailed Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que., after Friday's short program, but came roaring back a day later with a near-flawless free skate program, scoring a season's best 131.77 points for the routine and 185.35 points overall.

"After yesterday it was very hard, I was very sad and disappointed about lot of things, and I just put myself in the toughest position I've ever had to skate in," Rochette said. "Really even today I still was not in a good mood minutes before I went on the ice, I was shaking.

"But when I got out there the music started and I felt much better. I just showed myself I'm stronger mentally that I ever thought."

Phaneuf, the 2004 Canadian champion, finished second, scoring 92.26 for her free program and 151.42 overall. Both Rochette and Phaneuf earned spots on the Canadian team for the 2009 world championships in Los Angeles. Amelie Lacoste of Delson, Que., won the bronze, scoring 89.46 in her free program and 143.01 overall.

Rochette stumbled through an error-filled short program Friday night to leave her second behind Phaneuf, an unfamiliar position for the skater who was fifth at last year's world championships. It also left her with serious doubts about the short program heading into the world championships in March.

But performing her long routine choreographed by Lori Nichol to "Concierto de Aranjuez," a classical guitar composition -- and one of figure skating's most popular pieces of music -- Rochette reeled off jump after jump, including an opening triple Lutz-double toe-double loop combination that earned her high marks.

She looked near tears as she bowed to the crowd.

"I'm really proud of what I did tonight, it was not an easy thing after being disappointed (Friday)," she said. "I'm not an emotional skater so much, I'm not someone who usually expresses so much at the end of my performance, but tonight I was really really proud of myself to pull this out."

Rochette was a tough act to follow. The crowd was still on its feet when the 21-year-old Phaneuf stepped on to the ice for a couple of warmup laps, carefully steering around the dozens of stuffed animals that littered the surface.

"I was very excited, it wasn't an easy skate for me, I had to fight until the end, and to skate after Joannie was very tough too, and I had to refocus on myself," Phaneuf said. "I'm very proud of myself."

Phaneuf, who was the 2004 Canadian champion before some serious injuries and a significant growth spurt kept her out of the spotlight for a couple of years, struggled in her long routine Saturday. She fell on her opening jump, a triple Lutz, and would fall twice more -- on a triple flip and triple Salchow -- before her routine ended.

Rochette said she and her coaches will go back to the drawing board when they return home next week and try to determine whether to change the short program, which also caused her problems at the Grand Prix Final.

"Of course I'm going to celebrate this win, I'm happy about this, but for worlds I do not want to allow myself to make any mistakes in that short program, I want it to be good," Rochette said. "I think here was the wakeup call, we need to make a decision and I don't know what we'll do."

Later on Saturday, Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin look to hold off world championship bronze medallists Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison in the pairs.

And defending ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will attempt to capture gold in their season debut.