North Harbour Hockey on a high this season

It is no fluke that North Harbour Hockey has risen to the top this season.

The region picked up the Ramesh Patel Shield for the first time this year, on the back of the success in the under-18, under-21 and senior national competitions.

Harbour’s come-from-behind win in the men’s National Hockey League (NHL) final on Sunday, capped off a season in which the region won the New Zealand men’s under-21 title, finished third in both the under-18 men’s and women’s national tournaments and finished fourth in the women’s NHL and fifth in the under-21 women’s.

North Harbour Hockey’s talent development officer James Coughlan said to be recognised as the top-performing region is ‘‘a massive success’’.

‘‘Four podium finishes out of six is an awesome result for North Harbour and one that has been brewing for a long time,’’ Coughlan said.

It has been eight years since Harbour last won the men’s NHL title and the team that lifted the Challenge Shield in 2017, with a 5-3 win over Auckland, had a new look about it. Coughlan, Cory Bennett, Joseph Bartholomew and coach Dave Kosoof were the only members of this year’s group involved in the 2009 title-winning campaign.

‘‘To have 15 new players win the Challenge Shield for the first time is obviously very exciting and something that has been a disappointment in recent years, having not medalled since 2012 when we got bronze,’’ Coughlan said.

In his first stint as head coach, Kosoof had every intention of breaking the silverware drought. ‘‘I certainly made sure I put in a plan early to give us the best shot of bringing the shield back to Harbour,’’ he said.

‘‘I changed our training environment and playing style to

‘‘Four podium finishes out of six is an awesome result for North Harbour’’ talent development officer James Coughlan

ensure we had an enjoyable, balanced environment, where everyone wanted to work hard for a common goal. We won every game at tournament which is a very impressive record and obviously showed consistency. It was also pleasing to play our style throughout the entire tournament which certainly made us exciting to watch.’’

Harbour were down 3-1 to Auckland in the final, but scored four goals in eight minutes to secure the win.

JOHN COWPLAND / PHOTOSPORT North Harbour celebrates the win over Auckland in the final of the National Hockey League on Sunday in Wellington. The Challenge Shield was last held by Harbour in 2009.