Saturday night the Jim was the place to be as the Rampage and Williams Lake Stampeders took to the ice in an offensive and at times quite physical showdown featuring 91 shots on goal between the two teams, to go along with the 48 minutes in penalties assessed over the sixty minutes of regular time.
Once all the drama was finished for the season opener, the visitors were taking the shoot out victory by a final of 5-4 .
Kory Movold is the trivia answer to this years question of which member of the Rampage scored the first goal of the 2015-16 season, his marker making for the first goal of the game at the three minute mark, with an assist going to Jared Meers.
The Stampeders battled back four minutes later to tie the game up and then took the first period lead
at the 16 minute mark, a short lived advantage over the Rampage, with Tyler Halliday netting his first marker as a Rampage at the 16:43 mark, Meers once again snared the helper on the second goal of the night for Prince Rupert.
Williams Lake took control of the second period two an a half minutes in, grabbing a 3-2 lead, followed by another marker but twenty seconds later.That 4-2 lead would hold through until almost the last minute of play, when Brayden Horcoff pulled the Rampage to within one at 18:46, Jared Meers was once again in on the scoring gaining one assist, while Tyler Ostrom picked up the second on Horcoff's scoring play.
Things picked up on the physical play again in the third, with a string of Williams Lake penalties through the first six minutes keeping the Rampage on the power play, finally capitalizing on the man advantage at the 7:39 mark, when Devin Palmer tied the game up at 4-4 with assists from Jared Davis and Jean-Luc Fournier.
Neither team would take advantage of their opportunities for the remainder of the third sending the game into overtime and then the shoot out, with Williams Lake coming out on top on Dylan Richardson's opening shot and eventual shoot out winner. Kory Movold was selected to take the Rampage response, but was denied by the Stampeders Justin Foote.
Foote overall was not quite as busy over the sixty minutes plus of hockey, making 34 saves on 38 shotes, while Prince Rupert's Devin Gerrits was peppered with 52 shots, turning aside 48 in regulation time.
On the penalty front, the Stampeders were assessed 24 minutes on 12 infractions, while the Rampage also were tagged for 24 minutes in the box on 8 infractions.
Prince Rupert brought a large crowd to the season opener, with 560 in attendance to launch the 2015-16 march towards the Coy Cup.
You can review the full score sheet from Saturday's game here.
The afternoon skate at the Jim found the Rampage taking the 4-3 shoot out victory in another fairly physical contest.
The scoring was limited to the first and third periods with the two teams ending the first tied at one thanks to Tyler Ostrom's marker at the 12 minute mark of the period, with assists going to Patrick Robert and Jordan Aubree.
Period two provided for much in the way of back and fort play and a bit of snark on the ice, but no goals on the scoreboard, as the twenty minutes went by with neither team finding its mark on the others nets.
Period three brought the flood of goal scoring for the final twenty minutes of regulation time, with the two teams trading off goals to the very end, the Rampage players finding their range were Patrick Robert at eleven minutes with helpers from Mike Coolin and Tyler Ostrom, while Ben Towner tied the game up late in the third, putting the puck in the Quesnel net at the 16 minute mark, with Jean Luc Fournier and Craig Munro picking up the assists.
The two teams could not break the 3-3 deadlock in the overtime period, turning things over to Jared Meers to bring the victory home with his shoot out winner.
When the stats were finished on the afternoon, Quesnel goaltender Richard Ward had faced 44 shots from the Rampage offensive zone play, turning aside 41, while Jarrod Hildebrandt held off the Quesnel attack keeping 44 of the 47 shots from finding their range on the day.
Quesnel won the penalty parade stats, assessed 37 minutes of penalty time on 13 infractions, while th Rampage were in the box for 29 minutes on 9 infractions.
You can review the full score sheet from Sunday's game here
The Rampage next see action on Saturday night when they make their first road trip of the season, heading off to Terrace for an 8 PM start at the Terrace Ice arena.
You can find more Rampage information from our Results page here, or our features archive here which offers up notes on the Rampage season as well as items from around the CIHL.
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