Rampage counting down the days to season debut October 1

The practice sessions and chalk board work are near an end for members of the Prince Rupert Rampage, the month long process of shaking off the rust of an off season starting to give way to anticipation of the drop of the puck and the first real competitive action of a brand new CIHL season.

And while there will be a number of familiar faces taking to the ice in October, the team continues to hold open tryouts at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre for players looking to earn a spot in the Rampage lineup

Those who look to see how they  measure up are invited to drop in on Mondays from 8:45 to 10:15 PM and on Thursday's from 8:30 to 9:45 PM.

The tryouts will continue right up until the end of the month.

The Rampage organization is also looking to fill a volunteer position with team, putting out the call for an Equipment Manager, if it's of interest to you contact Ron German at bigfish@citytel.net

More notes on the preparations through training camp for the Rampage season can be found on their Facebook page.

The full CIHL season has now been released with the Road schedule for Rampage now available for review, to go along with the home dates which we previewed last month.

The First of the Ramapge road trips takes them to Terrace on October 8th for the first of two regular season trips to the Terrace Ice rink.

Two trips to Kitimat are on the schedule, the first coming up on November 12th, while the Ramapge make their first incursion into the Bulkley Valley on October 29th when they take on the Smithers Steelheads.

The always challenging far east road trip arrives for the Rhinos in November this year, as the Rampage head for Williams Lake and Quesnel on the weekend of November 26th and 27th.

The annual Christmas/New Years break will be a particularly long one for this season, with the Rampage heading off the ice after the December 10th game with Smithers, they return to action for 2017 on January 6th launching a home and home series with Kitimat.

The Rampage will be hosting a special Pre-Season game on Saturday, September 24th, with the Terrace River Kings coming to town to take part in the Frank Pyde Memorial Charity Exhibition Game.

The puck drop is set for 7 PM, with proceeds from the game to be donated to a local health care facility in memory of Dr. Frank Pyde the co-founder and former head coach of the CIHL team, Dr. Pyde passed away over the summer.

The season wraps up with one more trip into Smithers on January 28th.

The full Rampage Schedule can be found below:
(Road Games Green, Home Games Red)

Saturday, Oct 1 -- Kitimat Ice Demons 2 at Rampage 3
Saturday, Oct 8 -- Prince Rupert 4 at Terrace River Kings 2
Saturday, Oct 15 -- Terrace River Kings 6 at Rampage 3
Saturday, Oct 29 -- Prince Rupert at Smithers Steelheads 8 PM
Saturday, Nov 5 -- Quesnel Kangaroos at Rampage 7 PM
Saturday, Nov 12 -- Prince Rupert at Kitimat Ice Demons 8 PM
Saturday, Nov 19 -- Terrace River Kings at Rampage 7 PM
Saturday, Nov 26 -- Prince Rupert at Williams Lake Stampeders 8 PM
Sunday, Nov 27 -- Prince Rupert at Quesnel Kangaroos 1 PM
Saturday, Dec 3 -- Prince Rupert at Terrace River Kings  7 PM
Saturday, Dec 10 -- Smithers Steelheads at Rampage 7 PM
Friday, Jan 6 -- Prince Rupert at Kitimat Ice Demons 8 PM
Saturday, Jan 7 -- Kitimat Ice Demons at Rampage  7 PM
Saturday, Jan 14 -- Williams Lake Stampeders at Rampage 7 PM
Saturday, Jan 21 -- Smithers Steelheads at Rampage 7 PM
Saturday, Jan 28 -- Prince Rupert at Smithers 8 PM

Updates on the travels of the Ramapge through the 2016-17 season can be found from the Ramapge Facebook page or website.

As we have in past seasons we have a pair of archives to review as the Rampage work their way through the schedule and a hopeful quest for the Coy Cup.

Once the season launches we will launch our Rampage Results Page (see our Rampage archive), providing scores and notes on each of the 16 regular season games of the 2016-17 season.

For a larger overview of the CIHL season ahead see our CIHL News archive here.