Mikael Kingsbury owns a prime piece of Ruka real estate.

The moguls hill in northern Finland is his for the taking every winter, and more often than not he roars down its bumpy landscape to find himself on top of the podium.

On Saturday, the 25-year-old from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., came through again, his gold-medal performance leading a dominant Canadian contingent to a pair of podium spots and four top-five finishes as the freestyle skiing World Cup season began with a bang.

“This is my sixth win here. It’s one of the places I’m at my best all the time. I love this course. It suits me well every year,” Kingsbury said.

He wins everywhere else these days, too. This was a record eighth straight World Cup gold for him, dating back to last season, when he took the overall crown.

“I didn’t even realize it. I did my interviews at the bottom of the course and that’s when I learned that this was my eighth consecutive victory with the end of last season and the start of this one. I wasn’t competing with that in mind.”

He won with a score of 87.45, well ahead of Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Reikherd with 85.11.

In an even bigger surprise, 29-year-old Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City kicked off her season with a silver medal in the women’s moguls competition, scoring 77.73 behind Australian Britteny Cox’s 80.32. Andi Naude of Regina finished fourth in the women’s event at 73.04. Marc Antoine-Gagnon of Quebec City was fifth in the men’s competition.

“I haven’t been on the podium for two years,” said an elated Robichaud, who added she will be celebrating with pizza. “I’m really happy with my skiing. I’ve had some good, I’ve had some bad, and I’m learning from everything and everything is kind of in a positive way now.”

That could certainly be said about the Canadian moguls team as they head off to the second World Cup in China later this month.

“It’s a good day for Canada,” Kingsbury said. “Four people in super finals, two on the podium, it’s a great start. We’ve been the best country in the world for the past couple years and we have proved that we are the best today, so that’s a great start as a team. We’ve just got to keep it going.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com