It's the most memorable way to win and the most heartbreaking way to lose.

A shoot-out helped secure Bathurst City a spot in the women’s Premier League Hockey grand final in a thrilling match against Orange Ex-Services on Saturday.

The preliminary final in Bathurst was a closely fought contest and it seemed only fitting that extra-time and a shoot-out was needed on the back of a two-goal comeback from the visiting side to lock the scores up at 2-all at the end of regulation time.

Three blocks from City goalkeeper Maddie Tattersall in the shoot-out provided her with one of the biggest highlights of her young career.

City will now travel to take on the Lithgow Panthers in a repeat of last year’s grand final.

It’s the second shoot out Ex-Services have been involved in this finals series after their success over Dubbo Blue Jays in the elimination semi-final.

With that in mind, City coach Lisa Quinn didn’t know how her team would cope with the new situation.

“It did cross my mind that they had that experience over us. It was a little bit disappointing, though, that we let them get back into the game,” she said.

“I have to give Exies credit because they picked themselves up. We needed to match that, but we put ourselves into that [shoot-out] situation.

“I think we had more control of the ball more often. We just missed a handful of goals across the front of goal.

“Maddie did really well. I’m really proud of her. I asked her if she was nervous and she said ‘no, no’. We did a bit of practice at training with those one-on-one’s and it’s come a long way.”

Fast-paced, end-to-end hockey was what the opening eight minutes of the game was all about as both teams traded circle penetrations and early chances.

At the end of that play City had the day’s first penalty corner and Andrea Seymour made the chance count, putting the hosts up 1-0.

City enjoyed the bulk of possession in the opening half, but the Ex-Services defence was often up for the challenge as they broke down their opponents’ play around their circle.

A crack was finally found by Jess Hotham six minutes from the break.

Thankfully, from the visitors’ point of view, they found a reply almost straight away when Chloe Barrett was given far too much space to shoot at the top of City’s circle.

From the 50-minute mark Ex-Services were suddenly making a lot more threatening moves and the City defence had to find some renewed enthusiasm to keep the visitors away.

It could only last so long.

A foot blocking a certain goal gave Ex-Services a penalty stroke and it allowed Barrett to bag a brace.

Several great opportunities in the final 10 minutes for City were snuffed out in the circle by both Barrett and Leanne Kennewell.

With no more goals, the match went into golden goal extra-time.

A massive chance from a penalty corner from each team went begging, City’s declared too high and Ex-Services’ being out from the very mouth of the goal.

In the shoot-out, City were composed as they nailed their opening three shots thanks to Kelsey Willott, Casey Bayliss and Hotham.

Shian Duboc and Madie Smith converted, but Kasey Byrne’s attempt to steer the ball into the right corner was blocked by Tattersall.

When Ex-Services’ Ellen Van Hoek had her shot pushed out of play City’s Quinn could have sealed the deal.

Erin Horan produced a good block on the first attempt meaning the City coach was half a second too late in getting the ball to the back of the net with her follow-up.

The day’s double goal-scorer Barrett was up to keep her side in contention.

After turning her back on Tattersall in her approach she couldn’t spin a shot around the City goalkeeper, ending the match as the hosts ran forward to swamp their stopper in celebration.

“One shot could have made the difference for us, but a lot of turnovers in the first half made things very difficult for us. It put us on the back foot straight away and forced us to do a lot of running,” Ex-Services co-coach Mitch Kennewell said.

BATHURST CITY 3 (Jess Hotham, Kelsey Willott, Casey Bayliss) defeated ORANGE EX-SERVICES 2 (Shian Duboc, Madie Smith) in a shoot-out