The Thunder has a double-header against the Queenstown-based Southern Stampede and needs two wins to move up the table.
"We have had a win against every other team but haven't beaten Stampede this year," coach James van Leeuwen said yesterday.
"We need two wins to get off the bottom."
The Thunder has shown a consistency this winter that it did not display last year.
"We have got to hit the game running and take points away from them," van Leeuwen said.
The Thunder players train on the larger rink at the Dunedin Ice Stadium, which they find works in their favour when they play on smaller rinks around the country.
"We can get from point A to point B quicker and that is an advantage to us," van Leeuwen said.
"We can capitalise on our speed to put pressure on them."
The Thunder plays at its best when it is able to attack up the middle and has less space to defend out wide.
It has two attacking forwards in Quentin Pepy, who has scored 19 goals this season, and Paris Heyd (17).
The teams played each other in the first round of the competition, when the Stampede beat the Thunder 7-4 and 6-2 at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
"They are must-win games for us," Stampede coach Steve Rout said.
"Neither of us wants to end up at the bottom of the table."
The mixed-bag nature of the Stampede's play this season was evident in the last round against the Admirals when it lost both games in the final minute, 5-4 and 4-3.
The key player for the Stampede is Brett Speirs, who has scored 19 goals in 12 games.
Others to watch are defender Bert Haines, goalie Aston Brookes, and forwards Connor Harrison and Gareth Lloyd.
This is the penultimate round of the league, with the Botany Swarm the only team certain of a place in the final.
Points after eight of the 10 rounds are: Botany Swarm (Auckland) 30, West Auckland Admirals 21, Red Devils (Canterbury) 19, and Dunedin Thunder and Southern Stampede 13.
The Southern Stampede plays the Dunedin Thunder at the Queenstown Ice Stadium tonight (7pm) and tomorrow (4.15pm).
