And New Zealand’s women’s national ice hockey team will need it tonight as they face unbeaten Australia in their biggest game of the the division 2, group B world championships in Dunedin.
The Ice Fernz are fresh off a win against a feisty Hong Kong China squad, but tonight’s opposition had a lot of depth, physicality and speed, Patron said.
Australia simply did the basics really well — "skating, shooting, passing", she said.
"There’s some skill there.
"But I also think we have another gear that has yet to be seen."
Australia is unbeaten after three games in Dunedin, outscoring their opposition 14-1.
The Ice Fernz trail their rivals by one point, needing overtime to knock off Ukraine.
Tonight her team would need to work together "and shoot that puck" if they were going to beat the Mighty Jills.
But New Zealand came together as a team and overcame some adversity on Thursday night, Patron said.
The Ice Fernz trusted the process — despite giving up an early lead.
"They absolutely grinded it out," she said.
"I harp on them to just skate with the puck, especially up the middle and get the shots on net.
"You can’t score if you don’t shoot, so just pepper that goalie and see what she’s made of."
New Zealand outshot Hong Kong 41-36, but took 16 minutes in penalties to Hong Kong’s four.
Just six minutes in the Ice Fernz were down 2-0 on Thursday.
Renee Jasmine Ng opened the scoring for Hong Kong after 18 seconds and at 6min 07sec of the first, Charleen Wong scored on the powerplay.
Then, just after the halfway mark of the first period — a quick breakout led to a Lily Hansen partial breakaway and she picked the top corner, putting the Ice Fernz on the board.
The bench went "crazy" after the first goal and it changed the energy of the game, Patron said.
In the second frame the Ice Fernz ran into penalty trouble and Hong Kong poured on the pressure, but New Zealand goaltender Lochlyn Hyde came up huge, making 18 saves in the second period alone.
About halfway through the third, the Ice Fernz took over.
Katya Blong absolutely sniped one to tie it up.
Less than 30 seconds later Hope Gregory buried a chance off a solo rush to put New Zealand up 3-2.
"That was a one-two punch real quick and then all of a sudden it’s like ‘we just need to stay composed for the rest of this game and we’re sorted, ladies’."
Katya Blong put the dagger in with less than five minutes to play, scoring her second to put the Ice Fernz up by two.
Hong Kong pulled their goalie for the extra attacker in the final minutes but could not solve Hyde, who stopped 34 of the 36 shots she faced.
The Ice Fernz won gold at the world tournament in 2011, but have yet to win gold again.
They wrap up play on Sunday against Turkey.
