NHL Hockey: Men rebound quickly

Northland men recovered from an embarrassing defeat in front of their home crowd on Saturday to take the moral victory in yesterday's Ford National Hockey League match against North Harbour.

Recent centurion Sam Webb scored an equaliser with 10 minutes to go to send the match into an eight-second shootout, with Northland coming up trumps to take two points from the match with Harbour getting one for the 3-3 full-time result.

It was a big moment for new coach Dave Adams, who'd called a special team meeting after their 10-0 drubbing by Auckland the previous day in Whangarei.

"It all comes down to the players really, we all felt we weren't good enough in front of our home crowd and we wanted to put things right and show what we were capable of," he said.

Harbour went 2-0 up early in the game but the home side fought back to level the scores at half-time with goals to drag flick to Webb and a field goal to Tom Ryan.

"I hope that this gives the boys some confidence and they can play well for the rest of the NHL tournament," Adams said.

It was a great morale boost after the champions started their defence of the Challenge Shield so emphatically. Up just 2-0 at halftime, the Aucklanders put their foot down in the second spell to score eight more goals.

The defending women's champions Auckland showed why they are again favourites to take the K Cup women's trophy, demolishing Northland 7-1 on Saturday. Leading 4-0 at the break, Auckland continued their domination in the second spell with former Northland player and current Auckland captain Jan Rowsell controlling the midfield. Tarranah Vette scored Northland's only goal.

Things didn't get much better for the Northland women in their second match yesterday. They trailed 2-0 at halftime but then coughed up another goal before tiredness and inattention set in during the final 10 minutes and they were beaten three more times for a 6-0 result.

Northland coach Bevan Gibbes said there were plenty of improvements to make.

The league finishes with rounds three to seven, semifinals and finals in Auckland from August 25 to September 2.