Hockey: We owe our fans, say Auckland men

By Terry Maddaford

Undone in their bid for top spot in the national hockey league by weak efforts in penalty shootouts, the Auckland men's team feel they owe their fans something in this afternoon's final at the National Stadium in Wellington.

"We let our fans down, that's for sure," said Auckland coach Mahendra Unka yesterday. "We should be playing at home but we did not play well against North Harbour last Saturday."

Draws in their last two games - against Canterbury and North Harbour, and subsequent losses in penalty shootouts - left Auckland a point behind Wellington. That cost them the chance of a home final.

"You can never count on anything when it comes to strokes," said Unka. "We should not have let things slip to that."

A draw in today's final, or either of the two playoff games, would see another innovation.

If teams are level at fulltime, they will drop two players and play six minutes each way. If no goal is scored both teams will then reduce to seven-a-side and chase the golden goal winner. Only if that deadlock is not broken will the game be decided with strokes. Auckland beat Wellington 7-4 in pool play and should, at their best, be too good.

"We have focused on quality hockey in training this week," said Unka. "Against North Harbour we did not do the things we needed to. But we must give credit to them."

In the playoff for fifth and sixth, Northland are at home to Midland Express in a repeat of last Saturday's pool game, won 4-3 by Northland.

The losers will play a tri-series promotion-relegation battle with the winners of the North and South Island tournaments later in the year.