Five early goals from the home side put the Cantabrians on the back foot before the game turned into an arm wrestle.
The Thunder could not add to its early flurry and could not score in the second half of the game.
After cruising through most of the match with a good lead, the Thunder gave up three goals in the last two minutes of play.
But its fast start gave it enough of a lead to hold out the Cantabrians.
A fired-up Thunder hit the ice with pace early in the match and established a lead within the first three minutes of play.
Matthew Enright speared the puck into Canterbury’s goal after a quickly-worked Thunder move.
After 10 more minutes of play, captain Paris Heyd extended the home side’s lead.
That set off a quickfire two minutes of play during which Benjamin Gavoille scored another Thunder goal before the Red Devils got their first score of the match.
The teams went to the break with the Thunder in front 3-1 after the first period.
The home side did not let up when returning to the ice.
Joseph Orr scored within the first minute of the second period and Noah Leahy added another three minutes later.
That would be the last goal of the second period as neither team could break the other’s defence.
During that period, the Thunder dominated possession and territory but could not convert that into goals and went to the break leading 5-1.
The goalless stretch of play continued into the third period.
Eventually Canterbury was the side to break the scoring drought seven minutes into the third period.
The match burst in to life with 90 seconds left to play when the Red Devils scored three goals in just over a minute.
After the last of those and a timeout the Thunder held out the Red Devils in the remaining seconds of the match for the 5-4 win.
The Thunder and the Red Devils will clash again in Dunedin at 5.30pm today.
The Toa Kauhanga Riri Toa Trophy, the Ranfurly Shield of New Zealand ice hockey, will be on the line.
The Stampede beat the competition-leading West Auckland Admirals 7-0 in Queenstown last night.
The two teams will face off again at 7pm tonight.
