Ice hockey: Losing Ice Blacks give improved performance

New Zealand was beaten but not disgraced when it went down to Australia in ice hockey for the second time yesterday.

The strong Australian team completed a clean sweep of the Winter Games when it beat New Zealand 4-1 in a tightly fought final at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.

New Zealand had learned some hard lessons from its 8-2 defeat by Australia on Friday night. It developed a stronger defensive pattern in the final and restricted Australia to just one goal in the first period.

Its discipline slipped in the second period, when Australia scored three power play goals.

The final period belonged to the Ice Blacks, when Braden Lee netted the only goal of the spell in the first minute, with an 8m angled shot from the left flank.

"It was a huge improvement by our team," head coach Andreas Kaisser said. "Our goal was to win the last period and we did."

New Zealand adopted a one-on-one defence that made it more difficult for Australia to break through in the centre, as it had in Friday night's game.

"We were more cautious and gave them less opportunity for passing," Kaisser said.

The best player in the New Zealand team was again goal tender Zak Nothling, who made 28 saves during the game.

In the first period he made nine saves and conceded one goal, in the second period 12 saves and conceded three goals.

In the final period he made seven saves and did not concede any goals.

The other strong defenders were the Idoine brothers Richard (20) and Lyle (22). Lyle's most notable save came in the first period, when he was the only defender facing three Australian attackers.

Richard put his body on the line and came to grief near the end of the second period, when he crashed into the backboard and was taken to hospital with concussion.

The best attackers for the Ice Blacks were Lee, Paris Heyd and Brett Speirs.

Australia's class team included six imports who put their stamp on the tournament.

Its best players were Scott Levitt and Jacques Perreault, who mesmerised the defence as they probed up the centre or down the flanks.

The first goal came after eight minutes, when Levitt broke up the right flank, dodged two defenders and his shot hit the back of the net.

The best Australian attackers were Peter Cartwright and Scott Stephenson.

Goal tender Matthew Ezzy also had a strong game and made 13 saves, three in the first period, six in the second and four in the third.

Australia took a stranglehold on the game when it scored three goals in the second period to lead 4-0 at the break.

It could have been more but for the skilled defending of Nothling, whose goal was pummelled throughout the 20-minute period. The Australians scored after a minute of the spell and twice more in the last five minutes, both from superb angled shots. Peter Cartwright sent a sizzling shot into the net from 15m and Scott Corbett netted from 12m from the other side.

Dunedin-based Heyd scored a hat trick of goals to help New Zealand beat China 6-1 in the semifinal on Saturday.