Fresh off a team-high second-place finish in 2016 and a top-of-the-table match-up on the penultimate weekend of the season, the Perth Thunder head across the Nullarbor for their second straight semi-final appearance confident of achieving the ultimate goal.

“We go in with confidence,” Alternate Captain Andrew Cox said, reflecting upon the mood in the dressing room of a Thunder team that has lost just one of their past eight games, a 5-2 loss in Sunday’s dead-rubber affair against the Melbourne Ice.

“It’s the first goal when you enter in to the AIHL season, making the finals weekend, we’ve ticked that box. We’re pretty happy with where we’re sitting and the competition we’re playing against as well.”

Throughout the year, the Thunder have ridden the tremendous play of import goaltender Thomas Heemskerk, who posted a save percentage of .927, a record in the AIHL for a starting goaltender having played more than 15 games, as well as a league-high 20 wins, including three in a shootout.

Cox was quick to credit the Canadian netminder, saying he gave the team the confidence the team needed to play their way.

“A guy like that can sometimes give you too much confidence,” Cox said. “You can sometimes expect him to save everything because he’s really that good.”

It’s not only Heemskerk that has propelled the Thunder to second position however, with import forwards Ben Breault (52 points) and Michael Dorr (51) finishing second and fourth in league scoring respectively, while Jessyko Bernard provided a remarkably consistent season, scoring in 24 of his 26 games for the Thunder.

The re-introduction of Captain Sam Wilson in to the line-up after a long injury layoff seems to have provided a spark for the Thunder as well, with the team having a 11-3 win-loss record with their captain in the line-up, a point that isn’t lost on Cox, who filled in admirably in his absence.

“He’s our backbone, the Captain and our leader,” Cox said. “He brings a presence to the dressing room, and it doesn’t matter if he plays five minutes or 50, he’s one of the guys that brings a lot to the team, so it’s awesome to have him back.”

The Thunder started the season in terrific form, with Heemskerk providing an intimidating presence in net and the local forwards carrying a good portion of the scoring throughout the first month of the season as the imports found their feet in the AIHL.

The Thunder suffered somewhat of a mid-season slump, posting a record of 5-5 between June 5 and July 30 as the team dealt with the loss of the Captain, but Cox said the team was confident they’d be able to lift themselves out of the slump.

“It’s hard to maintain a ‘perfect’ season,” Cox said. “We got to the mid-way point of the season and we’d been winning a lot, you obviously want to keep winning but it was good that it [the slump] happened, we hit the reset button and we got it all right for the last stretch going in to finals weekend.”

Now that the Thunder have revived their season, and sent a message to the league with their 4-2 win over the Ice last Saturday, Cox said there was one thing left to do.

“If we don’t win we’ll be extremely disappointed,” Cox said. “We’re going over there (to Melbourne) to win.”

The Perth Thunder will play the Newcastle North Stars in the second semi-final of the AIHL Finals weekend at 6pm on Saturday night.