Playing at home for the first time this season, the combined Otago-Southland team silenced the crowd with a woeful opening quarter.
Nothing summed up the period better than one clumsy play by Wendy Frew.
The hard-working centre threw the ball straight to her opposite Daya Pritchard from a Steel centre pass.
Easily done but it takes real skill when that player is right in front of you and about a metre away.
Unfortunately, for Frew, it was one of about three or four poorly directed passes in a dreadful opening 15 minutes and earned her a spot on the bench.
Her replacement, Natasha Chokljat, made all the difference.
The former Australian international was the marquee signing during the off-season but has been sidelined with a calf complaint for the first four rounds.
She added energy, pace and accuracy to a faltering midcourt and the momentum swung back to the home side.
Underfire shooter Paula Griffin has been coping criticisms from all angles in recent weeks.
Her combination with fellow shooter Daneka Wipiiti and the midcourt has been far from polished.
There is still plenty of room for improvement but Griffin answered her detractors with some superb shooting and can take some confidence into the Steel's next assignment - an away match against the West Coast Fever.
Griffin drilled 29 from 34 attempts, outshining Wipiiti who scored 21 from 27.
Goal keep Leana de Bruin has been a tower of strength for the Steel all season and turned in an outstanding performance yet again.
Everywhere Pulse shooter Caitlin Thwaites went, de Bruin tagged along.
The Silver Ferns defender grabbed rebound after rebound and won the ball back for her side with some inspired defence.
Earlier, the sight of the ball sailing over the top of Wipiiti was a fairly regular sight.
Amazingly, it took Wipiiti more than 11 minutes before she took a shot a goal.
That was perhaps both an indictment on Wipiiti's positional play and some shonky service from Frew and company.
The Pulse did a much better job of shielding possession and strung together a five-goal run in the opening exchanges and a four-goal run midway through the first period to lead 16-8 at the break.
But the Pulse is a team which has not figured out how to win a match and it was no surprise the Wellington-based team fell apart in the second period.
The turn-around in fortune also had a lot to to with coach Robyn Broughton's decision to drop Frew to the bench and give Chokljat her first start for the franchise.
Chokljat is more adept at feeding her shooters.
Suddenly, passes were going to hand and Wipiiti was more involved in the game.
Credit Chokljat for that.
The Steel hunted down the eight-goal lead, outscoring its flaky opponent 17-8 to take a 25-24 lead into halftime.
Once in front there was a sense of inevitability about the game.
The Pulse ran out of ideas and resorted to clumsy defence and was heavily penalised.
The longer the match went the better the Steel looked and the win has lifted the southerners to two wins from five games.
