Hockey: Northland women into NHL semis after crushing Southern

Northland captain Alana Laybourne in action during the Ford National Hockey League. PHOTO/PHOTOSPORT

A Jodie Nichol hattrick has catapulted Northland into the semifinals and a date with North Harbour at the Ford National Hockey League competition in Wellington.

Northland were rarely troubled in their 7-1 trouncing of Southern Storm and got through a great warm-up for the semifinals.

Northland picked up a fourth-minute goal through Black Stick Brooke Neal to set the tone for what would be an impressive outing.

Southern fought hard, particularly in the first 25 minutes where Neal's effort was the only goal that got past their defence.

However, the power and precision of Northland could only be held out for so long and on 25 minutes, Nichol stamped her mark on the contest.

She finished a sustained period of attack for the first one and followed that up with a second just three minutes later.

What had looked like an impressive first half from the unfancied Southern quickly became a trench that would be difficult to climb out of.

Southern compounded their own issues with a slow start to the third quarter which effectively killed off their chances.

The Black Sticks trio of Neal, Stacey Michelsen and Ella Gunson made their presence known in the third quarter as the Northlanders came out firing from the halftime break.

Gunson struck first three minutes into the quarter before Michelsen and Neal added another two between them to push the lead out to 6-0 with about 20 minutes to play.

To Southern's credit, they went down fighting and managed to get a delayed reward for their first-half defensive effort with a goal to Maddi McLean just before the end of the third quarter.

Nichol finished off her fine outing by completing her hattrick and securing both the 7-1 victory and a semifinal spot.