The losing streak is still alive.
But the Southern Storm popped in a goal and pushed the defending champion a lot harder than many may have expected.
The Storm has not won a game in the National Hockey League since 2014 and extended its losing streak to 28 consecutive games with back-to-back defeats in Tauranga at the weekend.
But the 2-1 loss to North Harbour on Saturday and even the 3-0 loss to Auckland yesterday had merit.
North Harbour won the title last year but had to work hard for the win against Southern.
It scored early in the second and fourth quarters but a late goal to Ellie Duncan presented the Storm with an opportunity to upset its highly-fancied rival.
Assistant coach Regan Bain said Southern pressed hard for an equaliser.
"We removed our keeper with eight minutes to go. Sometimes that can go either way ... but we were attacking right through to the end," he said.
"We had a couple of corners and a couple more shots and pushed one just past the far post. That could have been the equaliser but the girls played pretty well.
"It was a good way to start our campaign."
In the match against Auckland, Madison Doar pounced on a mistake and scored in the fourth minute. But Southern played well in the first two quarters before drifting off the pace in the final two periods.
In the men's tournament, the Southern Dogs lost lost 2-0 to North Harbour and 6-2 to Canterbury.
The Southern Storm will play Canterbury today, and the men's tournament resumes tomorrow.
