After Thunder opened the scoring on Friday night, Connor Harrison evened it up for Stampede in the first period.
The visitors had a brief lead in the second period, before Stampede went on a two-night rampage
On Friday night, Nolan Ross scored twice and Max Macharg once in the second period, but in the third, it was all about Colin McIntosh, who scored a hat-trick — Thunder managed to sneak one in, via former Queenstowner Jackson Flight, in the dying minutes.
On Saturday night, Ross opened the scoring for Stampede just over a minute in, from behind the goal-line, Thunder answered, and then McIntosh powered through again — it was the first of his second hat-trick, the other two goals coming in the second period, where Jett McCullum and Lachlan Frear also scored.
And while Thunder scored at the end of the second period, Ross, Adam Soffer and Dylan Devlin ensured they wouldn’t be booking a finals slot.
It’s now an anxious wait to see not only who the defending champions — hunting for their 10th national title — will face in the finals series, but where it’ll be played.
This Saturday and Sunday top seed Botany Swarm plays fourth-placed West Auckland Admirals in the second semi, the winner of which will again be determined by aggregate goals across the two games.
The ledger has Swarm as the firm favourite given they’ve won three of the four games between the teams this season.
But it’s a fair bet the Stampede, and their faithful, will be rooting for the underdogs.
That’s because if the Admirals can pull off what may be the upset of the year, Queenstown will host this year’s final.
