Wing Bryan Habana's try at the death helped the Stormers secure an unlikely 33-0 bonus-point victory over the Highlanders in a mostly one-sided encounter in Cape Town.
The home side, which had won two out of its three games in the Super 14 thus far, looked like it was going to be denied the crucial extra point after countless errors at crucial times during the game at Newlands.
But with seconds remaining, the South Africa winger charged down first five-eighths Michael Hobbs' kick on the halfway line and charged 50 metres to score.
His effort added to earlier scores from hooker Deon Fourie, flanker Schalk Burger and replacement forward Pieter Louw as the Stormers continued their good start to the campaign.
After dominating the early exchanges, the visitors had an early point-scoring opportunity when lock Andries Bekker was penalised for dangerously tackling hooker Jason Rutledge, but fullback Israel Dagg pulled his penalty to the right.
It proved to be their only real chance to score in the first half as the home side then began to dominate.
Fullback Joe Pietersen put the first points on the board after nine minutes when flanker Alando Soakai failed to roll away from the ruck and doubled the advantage four minutes later by capitalising on prop Clint Newland being caught offside.
The first try arrived on the 15-minute mark when the ball was quickly spread wide to replacement wing Sireli Naqelevuki, who was held up just short, but Fourie picked up and dived over in the corner.
Pietersen added an excellent conversion, before another penalty on the half-hour - awarded when flanker Adam Thomson failed to release in the tackle - helped Alastair Coetzee's team to a 16-0 half-time lead.
After the restart, the host came out desperately searching for the three more tries which would hand it a bonus point and for a while it looked like it was not going to be its evening.
Halfback Jimmy Cowan looked like scoring after his quick thinking at the base of the ruck saw him dive over - but the referee went upstairs and the television official rightly spotted a knock on.
The New Zealand halfback soon had to go off after picking up a knock and it proved a telling blow for his team, which finally conceded the second try 21 minutes into the second half.
It came after several phases of rucking and Burger applied the finishing touches by driving over.
Pietersen missed the conversion this time, but the Stormers did not have long to wait for their next points - another passage of good work from the forwards saw them win the line-out and allow time for Louw to push his way over.
Another miss by the kicking fullback followed, but with time running out Springbok star Habana had the final say to send the 36,000 crowd into a frenzy.
Scorers:
Stormers 33
Tries: Fourie, Burger, P Louw, Habana
Con: Pietersen, Grant
Pen: Pietersen 3
Highlanders 0
HT: 16-0