In a battle of two of the best teams in the North American Hockey League, only one could come out victorious.

And it was the Topeka RoadRunners who were able to escape with a 7-4 victory over the Amarillo Bulls on Friday night at the Amarillo Civic Center.

Topeka (24-8-2) only trailed once and took the lead for good at the 15:07 mark of the third period when Andrew White gave the ‘Runners a 5-4 lead.

Playing again without their leading point scorer Michael Hill, who continues to serve a suspension, the RoadRunners did not look phased, as they had 41 shots on goal and had 11 players on the roster register at least one point.

Daniel Dupell led off the scoring for Topeka at the 9:53 mark of the opening frame. Amarillo (22-7-3) battled back with goals at 10:32 and 13:43 to give the Bulls their only lead of the contest, but Jacob Poe tied the game for Topeka late in the first period.

The second period remained scoreless until the 14:20 mark, when Andrew O’Leary gave the RoadRunners a 3-2 lead. Newly acquired Davey Middleton increased Topeka’s lead to 4-2 at the 17:28 mark but a powerplay goal from Amarillo cut the lead to 4-3 only 15 seconds later.

The Bulls pulled the game to 4-4 early in the third period, but White’s goal then gave Topeka the lead late in the third period. Brian Christie finished off the scoring with two emptynet goals at the 18:50 and 19:29 marks.

Rasmus Tirronen stopped 36 of 40 shots to improve to 15-6-1 on the season and Nikofor Szczerba picked up the loss for the Bulls, dropping him to 17-3-5.

Topeka and Amarillo battle again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. The game will be streamed live on countrylegends1069fm.com.