We will meet again.
The two southern sides in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League split their regular season-ending doubleheader at the weekend and will clash in the first round of the playoffs.
The Dunedin Thunder won the opening game in Queenstown, surging home to win 7-5, but the Stampede took the honours with a 6-3 win in game two.
They will meet again in Queenstown in the NZIHL semifinals on August 1-2.
It is a rather unusual best-of-two series with goal aggregate to be used as a tiebreaker in case the series is split.
The opening loss at the weekend spoilt the Stampede’s hopes of qualifying top, thus gaining home advantage for the final should they qualify.
The nine-time champions finished second on 30 points with a record of 10 wins and six losses, finishing just a point behind the Botany Swarm, who also had 10 wins but gained a crucial extra point from an overtime loss.
After their best regular season in recent memory, the Thunder finished third on 29 points with a record of nine wins, an overtime win and six losses.
The second NZIHL semifinal will be a super city derby between the Swarm and the fourth-placed West Auckland Admirals.
Jett McCullum actually gave the Stampede the early lead in Friday night’s game on home ice.
Jackson Flight and Max Hurring responded for the Thunder as they took a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Mike McRae equalised for the Stampede, Hurring and Chris Eaden took the Thunder up 4-2, Mitchell Frear closed the gap for the Stampede, and McCullum completed his hat-trick to make it 5-4 to the home side and set up a potentially thrilling final period.
When the Stampede copped a couple of penalties, Mark Shroyer made them pay with a goal on the power play for the Thunder.
Cole Beckstead missed a penalty shot before making amends with the go-ahead goal, and Shroyer capped the scoring into an empty net with 3sec on the clock.
Game two had a cracking start when Jordan Challis scored for the Stampede after just 67sec.
Shroyer made it 1-1 near the end of the first period, but the Stampede scored power play goals through McCullum and Lachlan Frear in the second.
McRae made it 4-1 at the start of the third, and while Shroyer pulled one back for the Thunder, goals to McCullum and Lachlan Frear meant an extremely late goal to Flight was mere consolation.
Stampede players Dylan Devlin (formerly with the Thunder) and Stefan Amston celebrated 150 games in the national league.
