Despite the challenges, though, the defending champions have made it through to the gold medal match of the Premier Hockey League in Auckland tomorrow.
They will face the Mavericks, who beat them 2-0 on Sunday.
It was their first loss this season.
Coach Blair Tarrant felt his team lacked zip in that fixture.
They had beaten the Falcons 3-2 on Saturday, but were down on energy the following day, which was no surprise given their large Black Sticks contingent had travelled back from Malaysia recently.
"What’s really important is that we make some changes and we get it done this weekend," Tarrant said.
"They’re not big changes. We just need a little bit more energy in certain areas of our game.
"Our press wasn’t as effective as it has been in the past.
"We were a little bit — I don’t want to say fatigued, but we’re a little bit off the pace.
"We need full intensity in our press and it wasn’t there on the weekend, so we need to nail that.
"And then with the ball, we need to have the courage to play through and around their press, which we didn’t do."
The Alpiners are stacked with talent.
Goalie Louis Beckert is a hard man to beat one-on-one.
Veteran striker Sam Lane is the leading scorer in the competition — he has six goals so far — and Nicholas Lidstone recently made his Black Sticks debut.
Charlie Morrison will spearhead the defensive effort.
"It hasn’t all gone our way, like it did last season. But the boys have done well to get us to the final and now we need to get the job done.
"I think you can read into [that loss] that they’re a decent team, and if we don’t put out our best performance, then we’re not taking away the trophy this year."
The Alpiners women dropped out of contention last weekend. They lost 4-1 to the Falcons and 3-2 to the Mavericks.
They will play in the bronze medal match against the Mavericks in the early game tonight.
The men’s bronze medal match between the Falcons and the Tridents is scheduled for 7.30pm.
The women’s gold medal match will be contested between the Falcons and the Tridents at the same venue tomorrow.
All the medal matches are being played in Auckland.
