Hockey: Bream Bay, Mangapai draw

Bream Bay's Brad Cotton is part of a Mangapai sandwich during his side's 3-all draw in the last round before playoffs. Photo / John Stone

The final games of the premier division's regular season have drawn to a close, with Bream Bay United and Morris & Morris Mangapai wrestling toward a 3-all draw in the final round-robin match.

With playoffs looming, both sides set out to gain valuable turf time ahead of this weekend's semifinal round in which they will replay each other in a bid to book a spot in the final.

"I was a bit concerned because our regular goalkeeper is away and our second goalkeeper hasn't really got the experience for prems," Bream Bay coach Vicki Gribble said of Bream Bay's hopes going into the round 15 encounter.

The lack of experience in the goalbox stood out as Mangapai dominated the first quarter and went into the halftime break leading 2-1.

Heading out with renewed enthusiasm in the third quarter, Bream Bay managed an equaliser to level the game 2-2 in the opening minutes.

However, Mangapai then snatched the lead back to stay ahead by one, leading 3-2 going into the last quarter.

If their opening phases of the match were anything to go by, Mangapai looked set to thrive against the Bream Bay outfit in the closing stages of the game.

Despite that, they backed off toward the end of the match, allowing Bream Bay to score another equaliser and level the game 3-all.

With both teams settling for the draw ahead of this weekend's rematch, Gribble said she was expecting another tight encounter.

"It should be a very good one. It's an opportunity to get out of the third and fourth shemozzle," Gribble said of her team's approach to the semifinals.

"The team has the ability to win but it's just we really haven't shown it too often this season. We'll get a little more intense about how we roll players and what their role is on the field - while our overall structure might stay the same, we'll ask different things for different games by looking specifically at how teams play and try to counteract that both defensively and offensively."

The remaining men's game of round 15, between Dempster and Hill Maungakaramea and Currie Electrical Springfield was abandoned due to players taking part in yesterday's National Hockey League [NHL] pre-season fixtures.

Maungakaramea and Springfield will instead meet again in this weekend's semifinal round.

In the NHL matches, Northland Men lost 0-4 against North Harbour while the Northland Women's team drew 3-all with North Harbour.

The women's premier playoffs have also been set after ChillTech Old Girls beat Real Deal Maungakaramea 1-nil, Club Auto Hikurangi beat Echonorth Mangapai 2-1 and Hardie and Thompson Springfield drew 2-2 with Whangarei Girls' High School [WGHS] in the final round-robin match-ups

This weekend's premier women's playoff matches will see Old Girls versus Mangapai, Maungakaramea take on Hikurangi and Springfield play against WGHS.