Patience has paid off for Canada's top female hockey player, Hayley Wickenheiser.

Wickenheiser, the 24-year-old Olympic champion from Shaunavon, Sask., broke new ground when she began a week-long tryout with a Finnish men's hockey team near Helsinki yesterday. If she makes the team, she will become the first woman to play in a professional men's league in a position other than goalie. Four women have previously played goal in professional men's leagues -- Manon Rheaume, Erin Whitten, Kelly Dyer and Danielle Dube.

Sources said Wickenheiser would have to "fall flat on her face" not to make the team.

Last fall, Wickenheiser signed to play with a top Italian professional club, but the Italian hockey federation ruled that women cannot play in the men's league.

Last weekend, Wickenheiser quietly flew to Finland to try out with the Kirkkonummen Salamat, a team that is owned in part by Teemu Selanne of the San Jose Sharks. In the off-season, Selanne lives in the town of Kirkkonummi, about a 30-minute drive southwest of Helsinki.

"First when the guys heard about women coming in, they were kind of smiling," said Salamat coach Matti Hagman, the first Finn to play in the NHL, with the Boston Bruins in 1976. "But when they heard her name, they all went pretty quiet."

Wickenheiser, who was selected the most valuable player at the Salt Lake City Olympics, admitted that she felt a little nervous before practice yesterday. "It took me about five to 10 minutes to get used to the tempo," she said. "It was a pretty high-tempo practice, but I felt good out there. My legs felt good, even though I still feel some jet lag. It is only my third day in Finland."

She said she didn't speak much with the other players but "we don't know each other yet. It was only my first practice."

But Wickenheiser's arrival was met with great acclaim. Hagman told reporters yesterday that Wickenheiser passes the puck better than any of the players on his team.

The idea to bring Wickenheiser to Finland began about a month ago after Arto Sieppi, the general manager of women's hockey in Finland, heard about the collapse of Wickenheiser's deal in Italy. Sieppi is a close friend of Tomas Pacina, who is Wickenheiser's partner.

Sieppi urged the Finnish hockey federation to open discussions about allowing women to play in men's leagues in the country. "They didn't know if Hayley was going to end up playing for the league, but they went ahead and voted in the fact that if a woman was ever good enough to play for their teams, they would allow it," said Wickenheiser's agent, Wade Arnott. The vote was unanimous.

"Then they sent word back, that if she was ever interested, the door was open," Arnott said. "We had issues with Italy after the fact, but this time, everything was cleared for her to play if a team stepped up and was interested."

Kirkkonummen plays in a new arena and is in first place in their second-division league, Suomi-sarja (Finlandia League). "It's a strong hockey organization with a lot of deep roots in hockey," Arnott said. "They have a need for more depth on their team."

Wickenheiser is expected to begin playing for the team on Jan. 11. But both sides agreed on a 30-day assessment period, during which either may bail out of the contract. Arnott said other teams have now expressed interest in Wickenheiser, but Salamat is "the perfect spot for her to further her development and her skills.

"It's all new territory, but we're proud of her. She wanted to give this an opportunity. This is an ideal situation for her."

Wickenheiser has a clause in her contract that allows her to leave Finland to play at the women's world hockey championships in Beijing in April. She said she intends to do so, although she will miss all of the national team training camp. If Salamat makes it to the playoffs, which end in late March, Wickenheiser would have to fly from Helsinki to China.

This season, Wickenheiser had been playing for a young Edmonton Chimos team in the National Women's Hockey League, and because so few players can skate with her on offence, she had been playing defence.

Wickenheiser has played on men's teams before. She played for a boys' bantam team, attended the Philadelphia Flyers' rookie camp twice, and skated with an elite Czech team the past two summers. She turned down an offer to try out with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League.