The Black Sticks men recorded an emphatic 6-1 win over Japan in their second pool game at the Champions Challenge in Malaysia last night.
Four goals in the first half (Steve Edwards, Kane Russell, Alex Shaw and Simon Child) were enough to sink Japan's hopes with 35 minutes still to play.
Russell scored his double early in the second half before Stephen Jenness put the icing on the cake with a scintillating goal 10 minutes from fulltime.
The Black Sticks were in dominant form against a familiar Japan side, which proved testing opposition in last month's three-test series in Tauranga.
Head coach Colin Batch said the team backed up Saturday's 2-1 win over Ireland with another good performance and capitalised on their scoring chances.
''Playing in extremely hot conditions again was a real test for our conditioning and the guys handled that very well,'' he said.
''I thought we played extremely well and finished our scoring chances with precision. All our goals were good in their own right tonight. The win puts us in a strong position in Pool A ahead of tomorrow's rest day.''
The Black Sticks play their final pool game against Poland at 11pm tomorrow night (NZ time) ahead of their cross-over quarter final.
The tournament doubles as a qualifier for the 2016 Champions Trophy, with the winner earning an automatic berth, and is also important preparation for the Hockey World Cup from May 31 to June 15 in the Netherlands.
