Hockey

Jayna Hefford scored the winner in a shootout, while Kim St-Pierre stopped all three attempts as Canada earned a 4-3 win over the Calgary Northstars 4-3 on Tuesday in Calgary.

The victory moves Canada to 9-3 in the series of games versus local boys' midget AAA teams, and gives it three straight victories and four in its last five.

The Canadian power play struck first in the game as Marie-Philip Poulin of Beauceville, Que. converted a cross-crease set-up from Hefford for the game's opening goal at 8:03 of the opening period.

The Northstars evened the score just 40 seconds later on a goal from Godric Tham.

Cherie Piper (Scarborough, Ont.) blasted in a shot from the slot for Canada's second goal at 6:57 of the second period.

The lead grew to two early in the third period after Meghan Agosta (Ruthven, Ont.) netted a goal at 1:46. But then penalty trouble hurt the Canadians. The Northstars scored back-to-back 5-on-3 goals by Jordan Eddy and Brendan Santini within 99 seconds of each other to tie the game 3-3 and force overtime.

An uneventful overtime period gave way to a shootout, where the goaltenders ruled early - St-Pierre and Calgary's Kenny Cameron both turned away the first two shooters they faced.

Hefford, of Kingston, Ont. who has been Canada's hottest player through the first dozen Midget Series contests, continued her sparkling play with a backhand just under the crossbar and past Cameron, giving the Canadians the lead, and eventually the win when St-Pierre kicked out the right pad to deny the Northstars on their final attempt. St-Pierrem, of Châteauguay, Que., kicked away 26 saves on the night.

Canada is back to action on Thursday night, when it welcomes the Calgary Buffaloes to Father Bauer Arena (7:30 p.m. MT). Their next pre-Olympic exhibition game versus the U.S. is Dec. 12 in Denver, Colo.