The Lions mounted a fierce second-half comeback to thump the Hurricanes 44-29 at Ellis Park on Saturday to seal a place in the final of Super Rugby for the second season running.
The South African side will now host the Crusaders in the 2017 decider next Saturday, hoping to become just the second team from the country after the Bulls to lift the trophy.
It was truly a game of two halves for the home side, who were desperately poor in the opening period, but equally as dominant in the second.
The Lions scored five tries through prop Jacques van Rooyen, scrumhalf Ross Cronje, hooker Malcolm Marx, centre Harold Vorster, flank Kwagga Smith and flyhalf Elton Jantjies, who also added 14 points with the boot.
The Hurricanes ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes at the high altitude of Johannesburg, with three of their four tries in the opening half as scrumhalf TJ Perenara, wing Wes Goosen, loose forward Ardie Savea and centre Ngani Laumape scored for them.
The Hurricanes claimed a 22-10 halftime lead as they fed on the mistakes of the Lions and finished with clinical precision.
Perenara got the first score when Jantjies' loose pass to Cronje was not collected and the Hurricanes scrumhalf raced clear, showing football skills to shepherd the ball over the tryline with his boot.
Beauden Barrett was the architect of the visitors' second try when a simple move from a lineout saw him scythe through the Lions' defence, feeding Goosen out wide for an easy score.
The Hurricanes continued to pile on the pressure and play a high tempo game that forced the home side into mistakes. When Cronje spilled the ball, Savea collected and raced clear for an easy score.
At that stage the visitors led 22-3 with a near complete dominance of possession and territory.
But then began a spirited fight-back from the Lions as first Van Rooyen barged his way over from close range a minute before halftime, and then after the break Marx was at the back of a driving maul and burrowed his way over the line to level the score at 22-22.
The Hurricanes hit back almost immediately though as Laumape found a metre of space out wide for his 15th try of the season, a joint Super Rugby record for a single campaign as he matched the feat of former Brumbies wing Joe Roff in 1997.
The visitors were reduced to 14 players for 10 minutes when Beauden Barrett was sent to the bin having been adjudged to have played the ball on the ground after an excellent break from Ruan Combrinck. It was tough on the flyhalf as he made the error in trying to move away from the ruck.
The Lions took advantage of their numerical supremacy as they scored two tries in the time Barrett was off the field, the first through Vorster, before Jantjies finished next to the posts as the home side found their attacking verve that was so missing in the first half.
The game was settled as a contest six minutes from time when Perenara's long pass was intercepted by Johannes Jonker, who fed Smith to score the try that sealed the game.