Whales sink Kings to continue good start
PREMIER hockey in Dunedin got through an extra round on Monday and Tuesday this week.
With the under18 national tournament to be played in Dunedin later this year, a makeup week was needed to ensure three full rounds of play.
In the men’s competition, University Blue Whales continued their winning start to their title defence against Kings United.
They scored an opportunistic winner with barely two minutes remaining on the game clock.
The game started with a bang as one of Kings United’s key players, Campbell Paton, scored in the first minute, before many on the bench had even sat down.
The game settled into a more regular pattern as Uni tried to push the pace but regular mistakes broke down its attacks.
The Kings side was hurt last season by a lack of discipline and it seemed to come back to haunt it in this match.
Two green cards in quick succession left it down to nine on the park and Vincent O’Connor was able to convert a penalty corner for the Whales as they took full toll.
Just before the halftime break, a speculative reverse pass from Henry Will found Callum Dempster in the circle and, with a brilliant deflection, University had the lead into the break.
The second half did not erupt until the last 10 minutes, as Uni seemed happy to slow the game down and build attacks.
Kings attacked hard but its rocks or diamonds forward line was not able to convert chances.
However, Paton again found the net after a series of penalty corners and the game sprang to life at 22 with nine minutes to go.
Neither side could convert until a small mistake at the back by Kings was pounced on by University and a quick center ing pass found Lucien Burt who calmly struck home the winner to put the Whales on top.
In the other men’s game, Taieri joined the Whales at the top of the table hammering Uni Black 80, while Albany had the bye.
The women’s competition had games going on at the same time, and early frontrunner City Highlanders went comfortably solo at the top beating Uni A 40, while Momona beat Taieri in a shootout after being 11 at fulltime.
The final game was on Tuesday night, when Kings United beat Uni B 41 to move off the bottom of the ladder in what is a much closer competition than in previous seasons.