The Rhinos took two games from Northwest rivals in less than 24 hours, an impressive 7-2 defeat of the Kitimat Ice Demons in the Aluminum City on Friday night and then a thrilling 5-4 Overtime Shoot Out victory over the Terrace River Kings at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre on Saturday.
The action from Saturday still a very much discussed affair around town, as the Rampage topped the high flying Terrace River Kings in front of another loud and engaged home side crowd at the teams final home game of regular season.
Saturday's showdown with Terrace started off fast for the Rampage with two goals in the first minute of play, the home side playing off the enthusiasm of the huge crowd listed at 1,000 on hand for the evening, there to take in not only the final game of the regular season, but to provide their salute to reunion of the Halibut Kings teams of the seventies and eighties.
Jared Meers had the assembled on their feet; if they even had time to sit down, nine seconds into the first with the first marker of the night assisted by Kory Movald and Tyler Halliday.
The noise barely had diminished when Josh Cook stoked the crowd again picked up the second Rampage goal of the night at the 1 minute forty second mark, with Brayden Horcoff and Kale Burns picking up the helpers.
Terrace finally settled things down as the first period moved on picking up their first goal on the night near the fourteen minute mark as they took advantage of a power play opportunity to pull within one goal, a gap that held heading into the first intermission.
The Rampage came out fast in the second, with Josh Cook picking up his second goal of the night on the power play, assisted by Jean Luc Fournier, pushing the Rhinos into a two goal lead that held for much of the middle frame.
The River Kings however had some push back left in them, picking up two late period goals to even things up at 3 apiece heading into period three.The home side crowd found more to cheer about in the first two minutes of the final period as Brayden Horcoff converted some help from Josh Cook and Jared Davis for a go ahead goal at the 1:21 mark of the period.
That one goal lead held until the middle of the period when Terrace once again found success in the Rupert end of the rink, knotting the game up at 4 with the two teams exchanging unsuccessful scoring opportunities for the remainder of regulation time.
The overtime period settled nothing and sent the two sides to a shoot out, whipping the noisy crowd into a frenzy as the Rampage managed to come back from the early deficit to score two final goals to claim the victory.
Jared Meers grabbed the key first Rampage goal of the shoot out and then fittingly enough, considering his impact on the play on the night, the winning marker going to Josh Cook.
It was a fairly physical contest and one that kept the officiating crew busy on the night, with the River Kings assessed 28 minutes of penalty time on 14 infractions, while Rampage players served forty minutes of punishment on 12 infractions through the game.
Devin Gerrits held off the Terrace attack through some frantic moments, facing 38 shots on the night, while Patrick Leal did his best to keep the River Kings alive through the sixty minutes plus of action, turning aside 28 of the 32 shots on the night.
The full summary for Saturday night's thriller can be found here.
The Rampage now take to the road to put the wrap on the regular season with a weekend series set for Smithers starting on Saturday night, heading into weekend play the Rhinos have a fairly secure hold on third place in the CIHL West with the playoff season just over the horizon.
You can track past results from the season through our Rampage results page here, while more background on items for the Rampage and the CIHL in general can be found on our Rampage Archive page.
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