Freeze the New Zealand Ice Hockey League season right now.
The two southern teams are tied at the top of the men’s table with 3-1 records.
A final between the Southern Stampede, the perennial champions, and the improving Dunedin Thunder would be a mouth-watering prospect — but we must not get ahead of ourselves.
The Stampede made it three straight wins when they swept the Canterbury Red Devils 6-4 and 6-2 in Christchurch at the weekend.
Game one had a cagey start as the Stampede led 1-0 after the first period through a Maxwell Macharg goal.
Morris completed his hat-trick just 15sec into the final period, but Macharg and Ross both scored again, within 14sec of each other.
The Red Devils pulled it back to 5-4 before Lachlan Frear iced victory for the Stampede with 34sec left on the clock.
It was a little more clearcut in game two on Sunday night.
The Stampede came flying out of the blocks, taking a 4-0 lead inside 12min with goals to Ross (two), McIntosh — making his 100th appearance for the Queenstown team — and Stefan Amston.
The shell-shocked home side pulled one goal back late in the period and added another on the power play late in the second.
Any hopes the Cantabrians might have had of a comeback were dashed 9sec later when Ross completed his hat-trick, and McIntosh completed the scoring early in the third period.
McIntosh added three assists for the Stampede, while goaltender Aston Brookes completed a solid weekend with 38 saves from 40 shots on his goal.
In Auckland, the Dunedin Thunder followed their first-round sweep of the Admirals with a split doubleheader against the Swarm, following a 3-1 win with a 7-2 loss.
Luke Stegmann gave the Thunder the lead halfway through the first period in game one, and Cole Beckstead made it 2-0 early in the second.
The Swarm then scored on the power play before a long stretch where neither side could find the back of the net.
The home side pulled their goalie with 90sec remaining, and Luc Taillon pounced to score an empty-net goal that secured victory for the Thunder.
There was a remarkable disparity in shots on goal — while the Thunder fired in 38 at Grace Harrison, Dunedin goalie Rhett Wilson had to deal with just 15.
Game two was not as much fun for the Dunedin side.
While Joe Orr gave the Thunder the lead with a power-play goal, the rest of the game was dominated by the Swarm, who led 2-1 after the first period, 5-1 after the second, and 7-1 after the first few minutes of the third.
Stegmann got a very late consolation goal for the Thunder.
Both the Thunder and the Stampede now go on hiatus as Dunedin prepares to host two world championship events.
