(TOPEKA, KS) -  Two power outages and overtime hockey kept fans at the Kansas Expocentre for over four and a half hours. Their patience was rewarded with a 5-4 win for the home team in sudden death overtime.

It was the ultimate in playoff hockey. Two teams, evenly matched, had scored the same number of goals through 4 games, and at the end of Game 5, they were STILL tied. It would come down to one goal. One single goal. One shot that would mark the end of a game...  a series....   a season.

After trading wins in the first four games, Fairbanks set about Game 5 as they had in each of the previous ones, by scoring first. Nick Guran roofed the rebound of a Peter Kavaya shot at 11:40 of the first period on the power play to take a 1-0 lead. Topeka never did score a first period goal all series.

In the second period, Corey Jendras pokechecked the puck loose at the Topeka blue line with Fairbanks on a power play, then raced 120 feet the other direction for a game-tying shorthanded goal, his 5th of the playoffs. Then, at the 10:15 mark, as Bryon Paulazzo was being whistled for a penalty, the entire arena went dark as a fire at a nearby park blew a transformer.  Power was restored shortly, but a 12-minute delay was required to cycle the lighting system. After play resumed, Caleb Wolfgram was penalized for tripping, and as the 5-on-3 power play ensued, BOOM BOOM out go the lights. (A Pat Travers reference for the old school rockers).  After an announcement that it may be up to an hour to repair, a few minutes later power was restored, but again, a period of time was required to bring the house lights up to full power. When play finally resumed, the Ice Dogs cashed in on their 2-man advantage when Eric Kraft slammed home a crossing pass down low for a 2-1 lead.Then Isiah Bennis, playing in his first game of the postseason for the Dogs, looked as surprised as anyone when his low shot from the left wing snuck under Merriam's stick and through the pads for a goal to make it 3-1.

It's time like these when MVP's earn their title. Team MVP Aaron Gens made a nice move down the left wing, pushing the puck past the defender and burying the low wrister to cut the lead to 3-2, but more importantly, that goal energized the building. 

The third period belonged almost exclusively to Topeka, as they outshot the visiting Ice Dogs 16-4. The game tying goal came at 6:11 as Randy Swank toe-dragged the puck around a diving and sliding Alex McRae, then blasted a shot over the right shoulder of Reichard, jumping the water bottle and sending 1400 plus fans leaping from their seats. With the game now tied at 3-3, the 'Runners moved in for the kill, and pulled ahead at 8:17 when Matt Hartmann buried a bomb off a feed from Jordan George down low for a 4-3 lead.  Fairbanks, though, continued to battle, and at 16:57 Nick Guran scored his second of the game and 4th of the playoffs on a blast from the right wing circle. Whatever nails hadn't been chewed completely through in the house were at risk now as this game was headed for overtime.

In playoff overtime there is no shootouts...  you just play until someone scores, as they do in the NHL. At 13:07 of the first overtime, that goal came. With that goal, that single goal, it brought the end of the game...  the series...  the season...   for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. Topeka's Randy Swank, who seems to score goals in pairs (he scored 2 in Game 1 against Texas), sniped a clean shot through traffic off a strong offensive zone faceoff win by Josh Kamrass and a tip back to the point by right winger Reed Seckel. Swank's second goal of the night was the perfect end to an incredible season for the RoadRunners, who last season in Santa Fe struggled to attract fans despite a 41-17-4 record and found a new home in Kansas.

It was evident all through the overtime that Topeka was knocking on the door. The 'Runners had the edge. The Ice Dogs were hanging tough but were wearing down. Topeka's new hockey team celebrated their first ever South Division crown in front of the home crowd, and it was magical in Landon Arena on Sunday evening. Anyone who was there will not soon forget the night Topeka was crowned Champions.

12 hours later the scene was starkly different. The aisles cleaned, the seats empty, the ice freshly zammed. The echoes of the Sunday night celebration were alive only in the heads of those who were there. The sounds of coaches whistles and barked directions filled the air. And the 24 young men who wear a RoadRunner on their chest were back on the ice, preparing for the Robertson Cup Tournament.

The Fairbanks Ice Dogs have every reason to be proud. They are a talented club who played well enough to steal the series but came up just one goal short. One huge goal. A goal that will be remembered in Topeka hockey lore forever.