A wise betting man wouldn't go against Auckland marching on to the Challenge Shield final in Whangarei this week at the national hockey league tournament.
The winners of the last four cups (albeit sharing the title with Central in 2011) are runaway leaders going into the last two rounds of round-robin play, six points clear of second-placed Capital, whom they face in the sixth round today. They've scored 17 goals in their first five games, more than any other team.
New coach Lloyd Stephenson is liking what he's seen from his international-laden team.
"Absolutely. In large parts we're playing really good hockey," former international Stephenson said yesterday. "We're creating plenty of good opportunities and dominating a lot of possession for large parts of the game. Certainly we're finishing games pretty strongly, so there's plenty of positives."
