Playing against a transformed Phoenix Thunder, in Dunedin, the Stampede put the home team away on Friday night, 5-2 — a score made even more impressive given goaltender Aston Brookes faced 43 shots on goal.
"He was unreal," coach Cam Frear says.
"He kept us in the game.
"We started a little bit slower than the Thunder, and he allowed us the time to settle in to the game — he was the difference-maker."
Fortunes reversed, for the first time since 2018, on Saturday, when Thunder took the win, 7-5, netting four goals in the first period alone, to Stampede’s three.
Tied up 5-all at the end of the second period, Thunder scored two unanswered goals in the third, though Frear says Brookes should take a lot of credit for ensuring the score remained so close.
On their first loss to Thunder in seven years, Frear says it’s "not a fun stat to look at as a coach, but they played really well and they deserved to win on Saturday".
"I think maybe we just started a little bit slow ... we were kind of chasing the game for most of the game.
"Then, I guess the other part for Saturday, maybe we were just a little bit predictable in the way we played ... it wasn’t a lack of effort from the team, it was just execution, we struggled a bit."
The Stampede faces Auckland Mako at the Queenstown Ice Arena tomorrow and Saturday — puck drop’s 7pm both nights — before a well-earned bye weekend, after which they’ll head north to take on the West Auckland Admirals.
Meantime, the Wakatipu Wild women’s ice hockey team this weekend travels to Dunedin to take on the Thunder from 5.45pm on Saturday and 3.45pm on Sunday — both games will be livestreamed via the New Zealand Women’s Ice Hockey League’s YouTube channel.
