But what they do have on their side is a home crowd at a venue, the Queenstown Ice Arena, described as both the best and the worst place to play ice hockey in New Zealand. Best place for the home team - worst place for the visiting side.
It is the first time since 2011 ice hockey has been included on the Winter Games programme.
The history books do not make great reading for New Zealand fans.
Australia has beaten New Zealand in all but one of the 15 tests between the two countries, which included a 58-0 blowout in 1987, a world-record losing margin in international ice hockey at the time.
In their most recent meeting in 2016, Australia came away with a comfortable 6-2 win.
Australia competes in World Ice Hockey's division 2A, one division above New Zealand in 2B
The Ice Blacks' only win against the Mighty Roos came in Dunedin at the 2011 Winter Games.
Australia will be confident it can came away with three wins after a successful year in which it narrowly missed out on being promoted to the division 1B.
But New Zealand is also coming off a strong 2017 season in which it narrowly missed out on promotion to division 2A, losing out to China.
Ice Blacks captain Bert Haines, who also plays for the Stampede, said there was no better place in New Zealand than the Queenstown Ice Arena.
''It's a real tight arena and you feel the crowd all around you and, as the home team, you really feed off that.
''But I'm sure the Aussies will feed off it to.''
The Kiwis would look to match the pace and skill of the Australians, he said.
''In the past we've been more of a defensive-minded more physical team and the last time we played the Aussies they were just a little bit slicker and a little bit faster than us.
Since then, the Ice Blacks have looked to change their tactics to a more offensive-based team which relied more on pace, Haines said.
''We've got a pretty young and energetic team who are going to try to push the pace and I think we can take it to them.''
''We're feeling pretty good about everything heading into the first game.''
About half the team played in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League finals series between the Southern Stampede and the Auckland Admirals two weeks ago, which would also bode well for the Ice Blacks, he said.
The three-test series starts at 6pm.
