Thunder 4 - North Stars 3 (SO)

The Perth Thunder have moved to within one win of clinching a spot in the 2016 AIHL Finals with a thrilling 4-3 shootout win over the Newcastle North Stars in a frantic finish at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium.

After taking an early 2-0 lead, the North Stars fought back to level the game twice in an incredible last two minutes before Kieren Webster scored his third shootout winner of the season.

The Thunder were out-shout 37-23 through the game, but Thomas Heemskerk was once again stellar in net, stopping 34 shots and not allowing a single goal in the shootout.

Jessyko Bernard started the game off in ideal fashion for the Thunder, netting his 15th goal of the season to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead, with the assists going to Ben Breault and Michael Dorr.

Breault then netted a goal of his own to hand the Thunder a 2-0 lead, which they maintained until the first intermission, and Newcastle scored the only goal of the second period to make the score 2-1 heading in to the third.

The period was played out in tight fashion, with Newcastle equalising with less than three minutes to play, before Bernard looked to have handed the Thunder victory with his second of the game giving the Thunder a 3-2 lead with 2.04 remaining.

However the North Stars levelled the game in heart-stopping fashion, with a buzzer beater finding it's way in to the net in the final second of the game to tie the score 3-3 and force a shootout.

Webster then scored in the sixth round of the shootout to hand the Thunder a 4-3 win, propelling the team in to second place in the AIHL standings and within one win of clinching a spot in the AIHL Finals.

The import forwards continued their stellar form of late, with Jessyko Bernard, Ben Breault and Michael Dorr all having two-point nights, while Rob Haselhurst and Per Daniel Goransson continued their great work on the blue line, scoring two and one points respectively.

You can catch a replay of the Thunder's thrilling win Thursday, with the game being AIHL's Game of the Week on Foxtel to be aired on Fox Sports 4 (Channel 505) at 2pm AWST on Thursday, August 11.