Hockey: Late rally keeps Kiwis' World Cup hopes alive

By TERRY MADDAFORD and NZPA

With three goals in the last 17 minutes, New Zealand grabbed a 5-3 victory over Canada last night to stay in contention for the semifinals at the men's World Cup qualifying tournament in Edinburgh.

The Kiwis must now wait for the outcome of the Belgium v Spain match to see whether they reach the semifinals and thus automatically qualify for next year's World Cup in Malaysia.

The victory, New Zealand's first in post-section play, put them on four points with Spain and Belgium.

A win for Spain would ensure New Zealand's place in the semifinals and with it a guaranteed place in next year's World Cup.

If by this morning New Zealand had not made the top four, they would join Canada and the bottom two teams from the other pool in a four-way playoff for the remaining two World Cup spots.

New Zealand dominated from the outset, winning the first of six first-half penalty corners - to none for the Canadians - in the fourth minute.

That hectic pace, with only the occasional Canadian raid, continued for much of the spell but it was not until the 25th minute (and fourth penalty corner) that New Zealand broke through to open the scoring.

Bevan Hari, back in action after missing Tuesday's game against Spain through suspension, was on hand to finish.

The Canadians hit back immediately. Breaking from the hit-off, they got deep, won a free hit and played the ball to Rob Short, who slipped it under Michael Bevin in the New Zealand goal to score from their only shot in the half.

The second half was a torrid affair.

New Zealand took their penalty count to 13 - Canada forced only one - and scored in the 54th, 63rd, 66th and 69th minutes.

But that attacking brilliance was undone somewhat when at 2-1 they again allowed the Canadians to hit straight back to equalise.

Coach Kevin Towns must have been sweating because even at 5-2, after David Kosoof had set up Umesh Parag, the Canadians raced away to score from the restart in the last move of the game.