By Greg Pearson
The New Zealand Ice Hockey League season wraps up this weekend with the Botany Swarm hosting the West Auckland Admirals in the grand final.
It's the first time there has been an all-Auckland final, with the odds heavily stacked in one team's favour.
“Growing up playing hockey in Auckland, played on Auckland teams with a lot of those guys, its not until the older age groups that we play in different teams, you know a lot of them really well and always like to beat them,” says Admirals co-captain Braedyn Durbin.
But that's something the Admirals have never done.
In the six years of the national league, the west Aucklanders have been unable to beat the Swarm, a winless streak now stretching to 26 games.
“It's only going to help us be motivated to get up and win against them,” Durbin says.
“If they stand there and remind you about it, that's fine they can believe it that they're going to win, that's fine but we've got something to prove.”
History won't be the only factor working against the Admirals; they will face off against a Swarm team that's won two league titles and is stacked with international representatives.
“I think they've got about 11 Ice Blacks and we've got one but we just got to work hard,” Durbin says.
But the West Aucklanders have their own international influence that's helped them through to the season decider.
“We have got a couple of good Finnish imports but to be honest everyone's been pretty good this year and a lot of our New Zealand guys are standing up and they're making the good plays,” says co-captain Robert Chamber.
They will need it to claim their first league title, and break their shutout against the Swarm.
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