Admirals bring Thunder’s season to end

A late rally was not enough to save the season for the Dunedin Thunder.

The side went down 4-2 in its semifinal against the West Auckland Admirals in Auckland last night.

Two quick third-period goals to former Thunder forward Shaun Harrison proved the undoing of the visiting side after an even opening two periods.

Earlier, Thunder got off to a perfect start after captain Paris Heyd found the back of the net in the first minute of the game.

It continued to threaten and Heyd had a chance to make it two nine minutes in after being set up well by Ben Gavoille.

Andy Hart struck back for the Admirals halfway through the period. He found himself one on one with Thunder goalkeeper Kane Easterbrook after a piece of brilliant play and found the goal to make it 1-1.

The score remained there for the rest of the period and the next.

Easterbrook showed his value for the Thunder, coming up with some quality saves, while the attack was kept in check despite creating chances.

It was five minutes into the third period when Harrison finally broke the deadlock.

He did a good job of creating space for himself and was able to shoot from range to get one past Easterbrook.

At that point the Admirals lifted and momentum was clearly with them.

They made that count when Harrison scored again two minutes later.

This time Easterbrook was able to get in the way of an AJ Spiller shot, but Harrison followed and found the net to make it 3-1.

The Thunder battled back, however, and with three and a-half minutes left, Joe Orr scored to bring it back to 3-2.

The Thunder then launched an offensive rampage and applied immense pressure to the Admirals’ defence.

However, the defence held and, when the visiting team turned the puck over, Nick Henderson was able to break clear and score in an open goal.

It sealed the win for the Admirals and books their ticket to the final in which it will play the Queenstown-based Stampede in a best of three series.

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