After four months, 16 games, 12 wins and 89 goals, it all comes down to this weekend for the Stampede.
The defending champions will host Auckland’s Botany Swarm at the Queenstown Ice Arena tomorrow and Saturday nights — and Sunday, if necessary — in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League finals, which have proven the hottest ticket in town.
The first release of tickets, last Friday, were snapped up within an hour.
The second, on Monday night, crashed the Stampede’s website on the way to selling out, ensuring a packed barn for both games.
There is an air of anticipation in the Stampede camp this week, as the players get their game faces on, focused on getting the job done by Saturday night, so they can again lift the Birgel Cup.
"A lot of us have been here a lot," coach Cam Frear said.
"We know how hard the games are, and how much the level steps up, but it’s just more exciting.
"That’s what you play the regular season for and train for, to get to the end and actually play games that mean something."
For Stampede forward Axel Ruski-Jones, 18, this will be his first experience of finals hockey with the side.
While he suited up last year, he broke the end of his tibia during one of the home games about halfway through the season, requiring surgery to have screws inserted to put it back in place.
He still managed to get to Canada, albeit a few weeks late, for his second year at the Ontario Hockey Academy — he graduated from the private school in May, shortly before bolting back to Queenstown for the NZIHL season.
Ahead of this weekend’s finals, Ruski-Jones said he was eager to get among the action with many of the players he had looked up to since he was about 10, who, he said, were the "all-stars of Queenstown".
Regardless of the outcome, he will have no time to relax, jetting off to Florida early next week to spend the next seven months living in Estero, playing for the Florida Junior Blades in the United States Premier Hockey League.
It is a huge opportunity for a player his team-mates say moves well, has a "big frame" and "great vision".
Frear said the Stampede was back to almost full strength for the weekend, though they would be without forward Harrison Macharg tomorrow night.
He still has one game of a two-game suspension, for fighting against the Canterbury Red Devils, to serve.
"He’ll obviously be ready to go [on Saturday]," Frear said.
