The Black Sticks created enough opportunities to win two or three games of hockey.
But you do not win games on endeavour alone.
Australia showed less creativity but it was able to execute when it needed and poached a 3-0 win in game five of the Tri-Nations tournament in Cromwell last night.
The win has guaranteed Australia a spot in Sunday's final regardless of whether it drops its last round-robin game against Japan tonight.
New Zealand and Japan will battle in the playoff match on Saturday for the right to meet Australia.
If the Black Sticks make it into the final, they will know they can beat what is a polished Australian side.
The 3-0 margin was flattering with the home side making most of the play.
The Black Sticks made plenty of ground down the right-hand side of the field with Kelsey Smith and Rose Keddell slipping tackles and generally making Australia work hard down that flank.
But for all their good work, the Black Sticks were sloppy in front of goal. They squandered too many chances.
''To Australia's credit they are very good defensively and they nullified a lot of what we did,'' stand in coach Sean Dancer said.
''There was certainly some really good patches with some of our best play so far. But the consistency just was not there tonight.
''Defensively we can do a little bit better and on attack we just need to make more of our opportunities.''
Savannah Fitzpatrick did just that. She opened the scoring late in the first period after New Zealand failed to clear a nice cross from Emily Smith.
The deflection fell nicely for Fitzpatrick, who slapped it in.
The Black Sticks had a couple of early penalty corners to start the next period but Australia was able to scramble the ball out both times.
Experienced defender Jodie Kenny snuffed out another promising attack when Lulu Tuilotolava made a dangerous run into the circle.
Veteran midfielder Anita McLaren had two cracks from a penalty corner just before the halftime break. Her initial shot was blocked but the rebound came straight back to her and she pushed the next shot just wide.
Australia extended its lead thanks to some brilliance from Ambrosia Malone deep in the third quarter. The striker weaved her way past several defenders and smacked a reverse stick past the goalie.
It was a nice crisp connection which left Grace O'Hanlon groping at air as it sped past.
The Black Sticks should have cut the deficit when striker Olivia Merry robbed a defender of the ball and pushed a dangerous cross to Tuilotolava, but the rookie's shot missed.
New Zealand continued to push forward and Merry had another golden opportunity but crashed the shot into the body of goalie Jocelyn Bartram.
With time winding down the Black Sticks pulled their goalie and Australia grabbed a third when Stephanie Kershaw drove into the circle and punched a shot past the last defender to score.
