BOSTON >> Ilia Malinin walked toward the ice for his free skate at the world championships with the swagger of a conquering hero.

Then he backed up the bravado.

The 20-year-old from Fairfax, Virginia, laid down another high-flying, high-energy program while defending his title Saturday night, earning a standing ovation inside TD Garden and capping a memorable home championships for the Americans, who won three gold medals in the four figure skating disciplines to take a wave of momentum into an Olympic year.

Malinin came up short in his season-long quest to land a record seven quadruple jumps — he had to settle for a mere six after he popped a planned quad lutz.

But it hardly mattered. He finished with a season-best 318.56 points after his free skate, set to “I’m Not a Vampire” by Falling In Reverse, to win his second gold medal by more than 31 points.

“I was so glad I was able to work out the whole season to get to this moment,” Malinin said. “It means a lot to me.”

Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan leaped past Yuma Kagiyama and into second place with a solid free skate of his own, finishing with 287.47 points, while the reigning Olympic silver medalist from Japan wound up third with 278.19.

“If someone had asked me at the beginning of the season that I would be on the world podium, I never would have believed it,” Shaidorov said. “The season was difficult but at the same time it was a breakthrough, and I’m just crazily happy to be on a world podium with such great skaters as Ilia and Yuma, and now I just want to keep moving forward.”

Earlier in the night, Madison Chock and Evan Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world championships in nearly three decades when their jazzy free skate held off longtime Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

They set the stage for Malinin to join the American gold rush, one night after Alysa Liu’s triumph in the women’s event.

Malinin, who had a three-point cushion over Kagiyama after his short program, oozed confidence as he sauntered to the ice for his warm-up. And when former Olympic ice dancer Ben Agosto announced his name, and a second straight sellout crowd at TD Garden roared, the self-styled “Quad God” became downright stoic as he prepared for his program.

The program itself? The kind of stuff few can do these days.

Malinin hit his first four quads, including the axel only he has ever landed in competition, before the only real misstep, when he doubled up the lutz. But he stayed in the moment, finishing the program to a roar of approval from the home fans.

He was already the favorite to win gold at the Milan-Cortina Olympics next year.

Now, the question is whether anybody else can even compete with him.

“Clearly, you know, he’s at the top of the field right now,” said Nathan Chen, who claimed gold for the U.S. at the 2022 Beijing Olympics before stepping away from the competitive sport. “Whatever he’s doing, certainly it’s working.”

The same could be said for Chock and Bates in ice dancing.

The longtime partners won with 222.06 points Saturday night, while Gilles and Poirier took silver for the second consecutive year with 216.54. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson landed on the podium in third, earning Britain its first worlds medal since 1984.