Kings United A picked up its fifth premier men's hockey win of the season in an intense 4-2 victory against the Taieri Tuataras on Saturday.
The Tuataras started with possession and began strong as some quick thinking and even quicker passes saw Callum Slee shoot and score four minutes into the game, giving Tuataras an early 1-0 lead.
Pressure was on for Kings.
A couple of minutes after the goal, they were in trouble as a penalty corner was forced on them by the Tuataras, but the shot went wide.
Nine minutes in, Kings fought back just as hard and won a penalty corner but the shot was well defended.
For the next 16 minutes both teams were evenly matched, until Kings got another penalty corner and this time Rory McLean ensured it ended differently, as he scored the first Kings goal to level the scores.
The Kings side continued to ramp up the pressure and almost gained a 2-1 lead just before halftime with its third penalty corner, but the Tuataras defended well and kept the score 1-1.
The Tuataras came out strong after the halftime break and, once again, good passing gave Slee the opportunity to score and he did not fail as the Tuataras went into a 2-1 lead.
Both teams passed and intercepted well and the tension continued to build until Kings' Aaron Fahey converted his shot to level the scores again.
From there the Kings side gained momentum as it got the ball down into the Tuataras zone frequently and Fahey delivered again, to put Kings into a 3-2 lead.
The Tuataras scrambled to get the scores level again but Connor Anderson crushed any thoughts of a last minute reprieve as he beat the Tuataras defence and established a 4-2 lead until the final whistle blew.
In other Premier men's games, Southern Development beat University Black Panthers 1-0 and Southland beat University Trout 10-2.
The match between Albany and University Blue Whales was deferred to a later date.
- Noah Graham
