In the opening race of the day, Peter Burling once again won the start over Oracle Team USA's Jimmy Spithill and didn't give up the lead to win by 12 seconds.
It was certainly a decent battle out on the water with Oracle Team USA fighting back several times but couldn't get close enough to put enough pressure on Burling.
The result was much needed to steady the nerves, after the Americans captured their first victory and closed to 4-1 the first-to-seven format yesterday, resurrecting ghosts of San Francisco four years ago, when Oracle came back from 8-1 down to retain the Auld Mug.
Today dawned with lighter winds than yesterday, but Emirates Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling controlled the pre-start and led rival Jimmy Spithill across the line by about a boat length, holding a three-second margin at the first mark.
The Kiwis have not lost a race where they lead around the first mark and lost when they trailed for the first time yesterday.
The 6-7 knot winds meant foiling was marginal at times, with both ACC boats falling off in tacks.
Ahead by five seconds through the second gate, Burling chose to separate upwind and found the best of the wind to stretch his advantage to 32 seconds by the next rounding.
Team NZ found a decisive puff down the right boundary of the fourth leg to further extend the margin.
Spithill made up some ground upwind with a tacking strategy and forced a split around the top gate, but the advantage was still 400 metres with time and distance running out.
They made up 20 seconds down that leg, but Team NZ had more than enough to see them home for a 5-1 scoreline.
