Monday, January 5, 2015

Rampage sliding out of playoff contention after two weekend losses

It was a costly weekend for the Prince Rupert Rampage and their dwindling playoff ambitions, after a pair of losses to the Terrace River Kings left the Prince Rupert squad unable to make up any ground on the idle Kitimat Ice Demons.

The Rampage dropped their first game of the weekend in Terrace by a score of 6-5, a doubly frustrating result for the Prince Rupert Squad who had battled back from a 6-0 deficit after the first period to claw their way back to come up just short of a taking the game to Overtime on Friday night.

The Rampage began their comeback at the 4:30 mark of period two when Jared Meers scored, assisted by Austin Weir. 

11 minutes later two quick goals sent the message that the Rampage weren't about to go down without a fight, with Craig Munro picking up goal number two with assists going to Jordan Weir and Derek Baker, one minute later at16:52 of the middle frame, Jared Meers picked up his second of the game with Kory Movald getting the helper, setting the stage for a furious third period push.

Josh Kierce inched the Rampage closer to the River Kings at the 12 minute mark, with Craig Munro again making the scoring sheet with an assist.  5 and half minutes later Jared Meers completed his hat trick on the night, his third goal coming with an assist go Jared Davis, pulling the Rampage to within one goal with but two minutes and twenty seconds to go.

In the end the River Kings weathered the storm, claiming the 6-5 victory, with Patrick Leal recording the victory for Terrace with 29 saves on 34 shots.

Devin Gerrits shut down the River King attack over the final two periods, facing 48 shots overall on the night.

You can review the full summary from Friday night here.

Both teams then matched up again on Saturday night at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre, with the Rampage once again on the short end of the scoreboard after sixty minutes, with Terrace claiming the 6-2 victory.

Terrace took charge of periods one and two, holding a 3-0 advantage into the third period before Jordan Weir scored the first goal of the night for the home side, assisted by Craig Munro.

The River Kings went back on the offensive towards the middle part of the final period picking up their three final goals of the night in a span of five minutes.

The Rampage could only answer once when Jared Meers picked up the final Prince Rupert maker on the night at 11:16, assists on the goal went to Travis Helland and Craig Munro.

Devin Gerrits had the start again for Prince Rupert, turning aside 29 of the 35 shots directed his way,

Patrick Leal picked up the win for the River Kings, tested 22 times on the evening surrendering but two on the way to the victory.

Saturday night's match up proved to be a fairly rambunctious affair with 51 minutes of penalties assessed on the night. With Terrace serving 24 minutes on 12 infractions, while the Rampage sat in the box for 27 minutes on 13 infractions.

You can review the full summary from Saturday night here.

The twin losses of the weekend put the Rampage into the position of needing a fair bit of help to push them into the playoffs for 2015.

Prince Rupert has but one game left on the 2014-15 schedule, a January 16th return match with Terrace starting at 8 PM at the Jim

Kitimat, which already leads Prince Rupert by two points in the CIHL West, has three games to come before the season ends, all of them against the Smithers Steelheads.

Kitimat can look to secure their playoff ambitions this weekend when they host a double header with the Steelheads on Saturday and Sunday.

You can review some of the past match ups from our achieve page here.

Our results page, complete with schedule and summaries can be found here.





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