Hockey: Michelsen 'stoked' with home tests

Northland's Stacey Michelsen will kick off the 2015 hockey year on home soil, when the Black Sticks play three tests against Canada at the Whangarei ITM Hockey Centre. Photo / File

Stacey Michelsen is looking forward to achieving top form on the hockey pitch again this year, starting with this week's test series against Canada.

For Michelsen, returning home to Whangarei is just the right place to start off an important year.

"I was stoked when I heard they had put the Canada tests in Whangarei. It's always nice to play in front of your home crowd and have all the support that the Northland community give you, so I'm really looking forward to it," she said.

A meniscus cartilage tear in her knee kept her sidelined for some of last year's international fixtures but it was the loss of form on her return from injury that is still bothering her.

"I'm still a little bit behind from where I'd like to be, in terms of what I can do on the field," she said.

"My injuries have all healed - touch wood - but I struggled a little bit getting back into hockey, and I don't feel I'm quite back to where I was before my injury last year, so hopefully I'll be able to do that this year."

The 25-year-old and her teammates are beginning their build-up toward next year's Olympic Games but there's a lot of hockey between now and then.

A harrowing penalty shoot out loss to the Australians robbed the Black Sticks of a place in the finals at the Champions Trophy at the end of last year in Argentina and the Auckland University law and commerce student hopes the team can continue to build from there.

"Obviously, Argentina was a good result for us, as a group we weren't really sure how we'd go with a new team after the Commonwealth Games.

"But we've got to remember that everyone else is improving too as you get closer to the Olympics, so we'll certainly have to do the same if we want to make the top three at the World League hockey tournament."

The immediate focus of the season is to qualify for the Olympics in June - the team is building toward the World League round 3 tournament in Belgium starting in June, and the first chance to secure that qualification.

"If we finish in the top three, then we qualify for the Olympics and also for the World League round 4," she said.

"We've got a couple of tournaments in New Zealand before then, and hopefully we'll get some good training blocks fitted in around them and hopefully begin building toward Rio."

Canada, who sit outside the top-20 in the international rankings, are unlikely to seriously challenge the No4-ranked Black Sticks. The Canadians last visited New Zealand in 1982, where they played in an international tournament in Palmerston North, although ironically they never played against the Black Sticks.

Their only ever test on home soil was in 1978, when New Zealand won 4-0.

The Black Sticks play three tests against Canada at the Whangarei ITM Hockey Centre.

The first game is on Thursday at 6.30pm, followed by two matches on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm.