You could say they are stampeding towards the playoffs. The Southern Stampede did not have the perfect weekend but they are still in pole position for the crunch end of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League season. Queenstown’s perennial champions have sealed top spot for the playoffs. They split their doubleheader with the Red Devils in Christchurch at the weekend to move to 30 points with eight wins, three overtime wins and three losses. The Dunedin Thunder hover closely on 27 points but their regular season is finished, and the Stampede still have two games to play. If the Stampede win their remaining games, against the West Auckland Admirals (23 points) this weekend, the Thunder will host the second semifinal. The Red Devils (16) and Botany Swarm (12) meet in the other regular season-ending doubleheader to fight out fourth spot. A decent Stampede comeback still ended in disappointment on Saturday as the Red Devils claimed a 6-5 win in the final seconds. The home side were handily placed at 4-1 up before the Stampede, as they so often do, found their scoring touch when needed. Logan Campbell made it 4-2 heading into the final period, Max Macharg scored on the power play to make it 4-3, and star import Conner Jean fired in the equaliser. Michael Morrisey put the Red Devils back in front but Macharg appeared to have sent the game to overtime when he made it 5-5 with a power play goal with 53sec remaining. Those hopes were dashed when Alex Gagnon poked home a Canterbury winner with 2sec on the clock. The Stampede showed no signs of being deflated when they returned to the rink on Sunday and blasted their way to an 8-3 win. Jean and Axel Ruski-Jones scored in the first period, Jean got his second and Connor Harrison and Lachlan Frear scored in the second period, and Jackson Flight, Max Roth and Ruski-Jones scored within two minutes of each other in the third. Harrison added two assists for the Stampede.
