The Twin City Thunder kept their playoff hopes alive by defeating the South Shore Kings 6-5 Saturday at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn.

With the win the Thunder improve to 26-22-1, and with 53 points sit one point back of the Boston Bandits and New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, who are in seventh and eight place in the USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference standings. The Bandits (23-17-8, 54 points) have two games left, while the Junior Monarchs’ (24-20-6, 54 points) regular season is complete.

The Thunder final regular season is Sunday against the Northern Cyclones, at Norway Savings Bank Arena at 4 p.m. A victory should be enough to lock up a playoff spot for Twin City.

“It was a big win, obviously. We didn’t play well through the first half the game,” Thunder coach Doug Friedman said. “But we played good enough and found a way to win.”

The whole team was involved. John Kondub’s goal and two assists highlighted the 13 Twin City players who found the score sheet,  including couple of acquisitions the Thunder made in a trade with the Kings last month.

“It was a nice mix. It was nice for a guy like Andy Antiles to score against his former team,” Friedman said. “(Lucas) Kucera got on the score sheet, as well. Those guys come from South Shore. It wasn’t just one line, or one guy, so it was nice to get contributions across the board.”

The teams entered the first intermission tied 3-3. Ryan Leonard, Tommaso Alvera and Patrick Larson having found the back of the net for the Kings, while Kondub, Gonzalo Hagerman and Daniels Murnicks scored for the Thunder.

Jack Ring and Joe Martin gave the Kings (17-26-6, 40 points) a 5-3 in the second period. Antiles cut the deficit with one second remaining in the period.

In the third, Twin City’s Anrew Kurapov tied the game at 5-5 and Nick Rashkovsky scored the game-winner.

Thunder goalie Alexander Kozic, who took over in the first period for Jaxon Friedman, shut the door on the Kings in the third period.

With a lot riding on Sunday’s game, Friedman is going to treat it like a normal game.

“We aren’t in there preaching about must-win games or anything like that,” Friedman said. “The reality is, last weekend is the same as this weekend. We just want to go out and do our best and do whatever it takes to find a way (to win).

“But we aren’t talking about if we don’t win, we aren’t going to make the playoffs or anything like that. It’s just another game and let’s go out and play as complete of a game as we can.”

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