Bradley Shaw converted a penalty corner in the last minute of extra time to give New Zealand a 3-2 victory over Argentina and a place in the Beijing Olympic tournament on Sunday.
New Zealand had muffed the trap on the penalty corner but the ball rebounded to Shaw who swept the ball in to give the Black Sticks victory on the golden goal.
New Zealand twice had to twice battle back from a goal down in the final of the six-team tournament, forcing extra time when penalty corner specialist Hayden Shaw levelled the scores with five minutes remaining in normal time.
The event in Auckland was one of three pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments with each of the winners joining China, Netherlands, South Korea, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Belarus, Pakistan and Australia in the 12-team Olympic competition.