The West Auckland Admirals have set up a rematch of last year's finals.
They will play Queenstown's Stampede to decide the national league champion in a best-of-three series beginning this weekend. That comes courtesy of a 5-2 win by the Admirals over the Botany Swarm on Saturday night.
The game was even most of the way, before the Admirals went on a third-period rampage.
David Nippard and Stephen Mawson traded goals in the first period and the score remained at 1-1 throughout the second.
Andrew Hart broke the deadlock for the Admirals early in the third and from there the goals poured in.
George Coslett and Gareth McLeish both scored, before Nippard added his second to give the Admirals a 5-1 lead.
KC Ball hit back late for the Swarm, but the higher seeds were unable to comeback.
The result sets up a similar situation to last year.
In 2018, the Stampede had been dominant throughout the regular season, only to be undone by the Admirals in the finals series.
Once again the Stampede will enter as a hot favourite.
The first game will be played in Auckland on Saturday, while the return game in Queenstown will be the following Friday.
