All signs are this could be one of the closest battles for the New Zealand Ice Hockey League crown in years.
A single point separates the top three teams on the table, while the Dunedin Thunder are hovering in fourth after splitting their doubleheader with the league-leading Botany Swarm in Dunedin at the weekend.
The Thunder won the opening game 5-4 in overtime at the Dunedin Ice Stadium, while the Swarm won the second game 6-5 in another thriller.
Morgan Blair and Cole Beckstead scored early goals to give the Thunder a 2-0 lead after the first period in the opening clash.
After the Swarm fired back to equalise in the second quarter, Chris Eaden scored the go-ahead goal for the home side just before the end of the quarter.
Beckstead slotted his second 1min 54sec into the final period to make it 4-2 to the buoyant Thunder.
The Swarm scored on the power play to make it 4-3, and they pulled their goaltender with about 90sec to play.
The man advantage paid off when Ondrej Kozak slotted the equaliser.
While the crowd loves the tension of overtime, the Thunder eased home nerves extremely quickly as Beckstead scored the winner and completed his hat-trick after just 21 seconds.
Eaden, Ian Audas and Luke Stegmann all had two assists for the Thunder, while goalie Toby Shuck had 23 saves.
Game two was just as exciting.
After a Swarm opener, Adam Stitely, Stegmann and Mat Enright fired in goals for the Thunder.
The Swarm came back to 3-2, Eaden made it 4-2, and the visitors scored twice to make it 4-4 heading into the final period.
Jackson Flight gave the Thunder a 5-4 lead, but the Swarm stepped up the pressure to score twice in the final 10 minutes and secure the points.
Beckstead had a monster night, with four assists for the Thunder. He leads the NZIHL with 22 assists, six more than his nearest rival, in 10 games.
The Swarm (19 points) stay top of the league, ahead of the Stampede and West Auckland Admirals (both 18).
The Thunder have 14 points and the battling Canterbury Red Devils three, meaning the playoffs — expanded to four teams this year — are effectively set, although rankings are still up in the air.
Dunedin’s remaining doubleheaders are on the road (June 28-29) and at home (July 11-12) against the Red Devils, and in Queenstown against the Stampede (July 18-19).
— The Wakatipu Wild returned to second place in the national women’s league with a pair of wins over the Canterbury Inferno in Queenstown.
Kelli Burstein scored the only goal for the Wild in a 1-0 win in the first game, and Kellye Nelson had four goals and two assists in the second game as the Wild won 7-2.
