COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The newly formed forward line of Jayna Hefford, Kathy McCormack and Jennifer Botterill clicked for a pair of second-period goals to key Canada's Women's Olympic Team to a 4-2 victory over Team USA on Wednesday night.

The game was the last of a 13-game series between the top two teams in female hockey and the victory gave the series edge to Canada 7-6 as both teams prepared for the first-ever Women's Hockey Tournament at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Team Canada flies to Japan on Friday from Vancouver and opens the Women's Olympic Hockey Tournament on Feb. 8 against the host team, Japan.

On Wednesday night, Danielle Goyette of St-Nazaire, QC, opened the scoring for Canada, on a feed from Calgary's Hayley Wickenheiser just 51 seconds into the first period. Katie King got that one back for Team USA on a power play at 12:38.

But Canada got an early second-period goal, as well, as Botterill, a Winnipeg, MB native, completed a passing play with Hefford, of Kingston, ON, and McCormack, of Blackville, NB, at 46 seconds. The trio clicked again at 15:32, this time with McCormack finishing the play to give Canada a 3-1 lead.

Shelley Looney's goal at 4:36 of the third period pulled Team USA within a goal, but Team Canada withstood the Americans, outshooting them 13-8 in the final period and 35-22 overall. Wickenheiser completed the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:52 of the final period.

With the victory, Canada's pre-Olympic won-lost-tied record improved to 20-7-0, while Team USA finished its pre-Olympic tour at 24-7-1.