The Highlanders stole a 23-22 Super Rugby win over the Lions in Dunedin on Saturday, turning the tables on last week's narrow loss to the Stormers by the same margin.
They move to third in the congested New Zealand conference, on the same points as the second-placed Hurricanes, and with the Crusaders four points behind but with two games in hand.
On the wrong side of the ledger in losing 29-28 to the Stormers in Cape Town, the travel-weary Highlanders started strongly at Forsyth Barr Stadium with 23 unanswered first-half points, but faded badly in the second spell.
Winger Richard Buckman crossed for the first of his two tries after just three minutes, the boot of Hayden Parker adding the conversion, a penalty and a dropped goal to give the home team a 13-0 lead after 25 minutes.
Two quick tries in the five minutes before halftime gave the Highlanders a 23-0 lead at the break.
The first came on the counterattack, as halfback Aaron Smith gathered in a Lions chip kick and offloaded for inside centre Phil Burleigh to unleash a raking punt down the right touchline.
Buckman showed impressive speed to burn off the defence, winning the race to the ball for his second try.
The Highlanders picked up their third from the restart, Ben Smith making a break through the middle before the ball was shifted wide for replacement flanker Gareth Evans to crash over.
The Lions, desperate to break a four-match losing streak, came out firing after the restart and took barely two minutes before halfback Faf de Klerk darted across from a quick tap for their first try.
The visitors continued to work hard, grinding down the Highlanders and running in tries to Lionel Mapoe and replacement hooker Armand van der Merwe to trail 23-17 with 10 minutes to go.
They continued to pound the Highlanders' line, and were rewarded with just a minute remaining when winger Courtnall Skosan dived over in the corner.
But Elton Jantjies couldn't nail the conversion from out wide, and the Highlanders snuck home for their sixth win of the season.
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