Shift in the standings for CIHL West following weekend play

Update: Turns out that there is a scheduling mistake on the CIHL website, with the Rampage advising that there is NO Game scheduled for Saturday night in Terrace between the Rampage and River Kings, the next game for the Rampage comes up on November 7th when the Lac La Hache Tomahawks come to town.

Things have become a little more congested in the CIHL West division following last weekend's play, with the Prince Rupert Rampage slipping off their perch atop the tables, after the Terrace River Kings skated into the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre and left with two points.

Saturday night at the Jim was all Terrace in a hard hitting, penalty filled affair, that saw the visiting River Kings jump out to a 1-0 lead in the mid way of the first period and never look back, adding three more goals in the second and a final one for the third on the way to a 5-0 shut out of the home side in front of 749 of the faithful at the Civic Centre.

The main story on the night was an inability for the Rampage to capitalize on the nine power play opportunities that they had through the three periods, letting those chances slip by as the evening worked its way to conclusion. While the River Kings were almost equal to the power shortage with the man advantage, the River Kings did make the best on one of their 9 power play opportunities, a power play marker in the second period.

Even though the River Kings dominated the evening in the goal count, the shots on goal were almost equal on the evening. Over the sixty minutes of play, the River Kings directed 34 pucks the way of Rampage goaltender Jarrod Hildebrandt, while the Rampage offence couldn't crack the armour of Terrace's Patrick Leal, despite the thirty three shots fired at the River King net.

Penalties marked the much of the tone of the night, with an equal amount of penalties and time served recorded on the rather full game sheet. Terrace on the night sat for 37 minutes of time on 18 infractions, while the Rampage players were in the box for 37 minutes as well, serving time for 19 penalty calls.

The officials had their hands full keeping play under control with seven penalty calls in the first period, 18 in the second and 12 in the third, including three game misconducts as the tone of the game got a bit nasty in the final frame.

The full score sheet from Saturday night's match up can be found here.

For Terrace the road win could prove to be a turning point even this early in the season, with the River Kings having struggled through the first month of play, all those frustrations seemed in the past following their trek down Highway 16.

The win from Saturday night and the two points now move the River Kings closer to the pack in the very tight West Division with but four points separating the now division leading Smithers Steelheads from the River Kings at the bottom of the standings

The Rampage will be looking for a bounce back win on Saturday night, when they spend Halloween evening in Terrace with a return match up with the River Kings, puck drop at the Terrace Ice Arena is at 8 PM.

You can keep up to date on how the Rampage have done from our schedule and results page here, while our notes and items from around the CIHL can be found on our Rampage Archive page.