The Newcastle North Stars defeated the Adelaide Adrenaline 5-4 in the first of two Semi Finals and with the win secured their ninth AIHL final in ten years.
The North Stars have been in every finals tournament since they started in 2003, and have only missed the Grand Final once, when the Adrenaline knocked them out 7-6 in 2010.
Of those eight previous Grand Final appearences, the North Stars won four of them.
The North Stars will face the "Hollywood" team of the AIHL, the Melbourne Ice in todays final.
Since moving from very humble beginnings in suburban Oakleigh to the new Winter Olympic Committee venue in Melbourne's trendy docklands, interest in the Ice has exploded ten-fold along with documentary crews, the league's best media following, sponsorships and record crowd numbers.
The Ice even have their own documentary crew, building up to the Finals tonight that the Melbourne Ice supporters have labelled as the "3peat" all season. The documentary is a quality production and a keen insight into the lives of players and managers and can be seen at http://ice3peat.com.
For the North Stars, their fourth championship was back in 2008, and while they've been successful each season since, with two grand finals and minor premierships, the Goodall Cup and Champions title has aluded them.
Written off last year by punters as not being finals material, the team has retained veterans, elevated juniors and recruited top-level imports and Aussie players to put together one of the best North Stars teams of all time.
Tonight this team faces the glamour kids of the AIHL, the Hollywood heroes, the Cup champions of the previous two seasons, for the ultimate prize in Australian ice hockey.
Humble and focussed, the North Stars are ready for 5peat.