Hockey: Black Sticks thrash Korea

Nick Wilson scored against Korea. Photo / Getty

The Black Sticks Men have taken a series victory following a convincing 6-1 win against Korea in the third test at Lloyd Elsmore Hockey Stadium in Auckland.

New Zealand were dominant from start to finish and were ruthless in attack, scoring three goals in each half to equal their second biggest score line of all time against the Koreans.

Stephen Jenness scored his second successive double while Shay Neal, Hugo Inglis, Nick Wilson and Kane Russell also found the back of the goal.

The result sees the Black Sticks seal a series triumph with two wins and a draw ahead of tomorrow's fourth and final test at 3pm.

Head coach Colin Batch said it was pleasing to follow up Thursday's big win with another good performance.

"It was really important for us to play two good games over the weekend and we had one today, but we need to be at our best for the last game tomorrow," he said.

"One area we have improved in hugely is our counter attacking ability and we finished off a few really good ones today.

"We want to play our best game in the final test so we move on pretty quickly from this one."

Striker Shay Neal opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a stunning effort taking the ball into the circle, running past the charging goalkeeper and hitting in on his reverse stick from an acute angle.

Just two minutes later the Black Sticks extended their lead when Stephen Jenness made a great receive in front of goal and tapped in.

New Zealand then headed into halftime with all the momentum following another terrific piece of teamwork from Nick Wilson and Hugo Inglis. Wilson made a good tackle on halfway and broke away, passing off to Inglis who dove past the keeper's feet and struck home on his reverse.

The Black Sticks showed no signs of slowing after the break and opened a four goal buffer in the 38th minute when Hayden Phillips sent a precision pass into the circle for Jenness to score his second with a nice deflection into the top of the net.

With less than 10 minutes to play the Kiwis turned defence into attack after defending a penalty corner and charging up the field for Nick Wilson to pull off a slick finish.

Korea finally struck with an opportune goal from Jung Jun Lee two minutes out from fulltime before Kane Russell iced the game with a penalty corner drag flick to score his side's sixth goal.

The Black Sticks play their fourth and final test against Korea at Lloyd Elsmore Hockey Stadium tomorrow at 3pm.