Dunedin might have been dominated by Bledisloe Cup fever on Saturday but it was also a special weekend for the city’s ice hockey team.
The Thunder followed a 3-2 overtime win over the Canterbury Red Devils on Friday night with an 8-7 triumph, also in overtime, on Saturday night.
Noah Gregory gave the Thunder the perfect start in game two with a goal, assisted by Will Ellis, in the fourth minute.
The less said about the next 20 minutes, the better.
Canterbury responded with two goals in quick succession in the first period, and another two inside the opening four minutes of the second, to take a commanding 4-1 lead.
Ian Audas dragged one back on the power play, but when the Red Devils scored again just a couple of minutes into the third period, a 5-2 hole looked imposing.
Then the game went haywire.
Audas grabbed his second, Ryan Wonfor made it 5-4, and Jack Lewis levelled the scores.
It was 5-5 for all of nine seconds before the Red Devils grabbed a sixth goal then a seventh.
Game over? Of course not.
Tristan Darling scored the Thunder’s sixth on the power play, and Ellis also used a one-man advantage to score the seventh and send it to overtime.
Neither side could make any headway in overtime, meaning a shootout awaited.
Thirteen combined shots were required, and Wonfor was the hero for the Thunder as he converted all three of his attempts, including the game-winner.
On Friday night, the Thunder fell into an early 2-0 hole before Paris Heyd pulled a goal back in the first period.
The second period was scoreless and it remained 2-1 to the Red Devils until 1min 32sec left in the game when the Thunder, who had taken their goalie off the ice, claimed an equaliser through Audas.
Heyd then did the honours with the game-winning goal after 8min 13sec of overtime.
The teams reconvene in Christchurch this weekend for the Thunder’s final games of the season.
In Queenstown, the Southern Stampede rebounded from a 3-1 loss to the West Auckland Admirals on Friday night to win the Saturday rematch 6-1.
It was just 1-1 after two periods before the home team stampeded over the visitors with five goals in a brutal final period.
Star defenceman Jeff Solow claimed a hat-trick and added two assists for the Stampede, while the other goals came from Lachlan Frear, Colin McIntosh and Stefan Amston.
The Stampede, trailing the table-topping Botany Swarm by 11 points but with four games in hand, head to Auckland to meet the Admirals again this weekend.
