It was more of a nightmare than a dress rehearsal as far as the Dunedin Thunder was concerned.
The Thunder was comprehensively thrashed by the Canterbury Red Devils not once but twice at the weekend.
The defending champions all but secured home advantage for the finals with a 6-1 win in Christchurch on Saturday, and followed that performance with a 6-0 drubbing of the Thunder on Sunday.
Not all is lost.
The Thunder has already booked its final berth and can still finish the round robin stage on top of the competition table if it wins both games against the winless West Auckland Admirals in Auckland this weekend and the Devils lose both to the Southern Stampede in Queenstown.
That would leave the two teams tied at the top, with pole position decided on goal difference.
The Devils have been the form team this season and thoroughly outplayed their Dunedin opponent.
The Thunder's arrival in Christchurch was delayed by a puncture and meant the normal pre-game routine became more of a scramble.
The visiting side gave a performance as flat as the van's tyre had been a few hours earlier.
The Thunder returned on Sunday with more vigor and trailed the Devils 2-0 with only 20 minutes remaining.
But the Devils' impregnable defence gradually won the day with a flurry of goals in the final period.
Of most concern to the Thunder is the ease with which the Devils were able to shut out the Thunder's star foursome of Paris Heyd, Connor Harrison, Martin Pokorny and Ben Gavoille.
Every time they got the puck, they also got hit.
It was masterful defence and a reality check ahead of the finals.
Elsewhere, the Stampede shared the honours with the Botany Swarm.
It lost 7-6 on Saturday but bounced back to win 4-1 on Sunday.
