The Dunedin Thunder completed the home stretch of their New Zealand Ice Hockey League campaign with a pair of solid wins over the Canterbury Red Devils at the weekend.
One more doubleheader awaits — the always tricky road trip to play the Stampede in Queenstown — before the playoffs.
The Thunder beat the Red Devils 6-2 in the first of two games at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
Jack Lewis scored the home side’s opener after 11min, and Ian Audas and Cole Beckstead — with a short-handed goal — made it 3-0 halfway through the second period.
Fabian Hast pulled one back for the Red Devils but Luke Stegmann got the Thunder back to 4-1 heading into the final period.
A sharp Haydn Boul gave the Cantabrians some hope before Audas scored on the power play.
There were a flurry of penalties late in the game before both Tristan Darling and Hast copped game misconduct penalties for fighting, and the pair were immediately suspended for game two.
When the dust settled on the brouhaha, Beckstead scored a second short-handed goal with just 3sec left on the clock.
Beckstead and Christopher Eaden each added two assists for the Thunder, who had 44 shots to their opponents’ 23.
The Thunder won game two 5-2.
Audas opened the scoring after just 2min 56sec on the power play, and while Boul quickly equalised, Adam Stitlely fired the Thunder back in front.
Dima Maistrenok-Zubkovskii and Beckstead traded goals in the second period before Beckstead got a second early in the third and Audas sealed the win with a short-hander close to the finish.
It was another niggly game with a bunch of penalties that culminated in Canterbury forward Garth Te Rangi-Henare being marched for abusing an official.
The Thunder move to third in the table with a record of eight wins, one overtime win and five losses.
In the first of two games between the teams at the top of the table, the Stampede came from 2-1 down to beat the Botany Swarm 4-2 in Auckland on Saturday night.
