Two wins over the Admirals in Auckland at the weekend have propelled the Southern Stampede to the top of the national league standings.
They have 14 points from six games and a handy five-point buffer over the Admirals and the Dunedin Thunder.
The Stampede had not played in two weeks and were coming off a scratchy overtime win over the bottom-placed Canterbury Red Devils, but that did not seem to bother them as they charged to 4-1 and 6-3 wins over the Admirals.
After a scoreless first period in game one, Stefan Amston and Max Macharg found the net to give the Stampede a 2-0 lead.
Justin Daigle pulled one back for the Admirals but the southerners dominated the final period and surged ahead through two Connor Jean goals.
Jean and Lachlan Frear each had two assists, while Aston Brookes had a tidy night between the pipes with 28 saves.
The Admirals scored just 56sec into game two, and while Max Roth and Ollie Ruski-Jones gave the Stampede the lead, the Aucklanders found the net twice more to lead 3-2 after the first period.
It was all Stampede the rest of the way.
Jean scored two goals and Logan Campbell one in the second period, and Jean iced the game by completing his hat-trick in the third.
Frear had three assists, while Jean added an assist to move to 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) for the season and into a three-way tie at the top of the league’s scoring charts.
The Stampede host the Botany Swarm in Queenstown this weekend.
