Playoff hockey tonight at the Jim, as Rampage look to advance to Second round

An arena that already tests the sound barrier on most nights that the home side plays will knock on the decibel door once again tonight, as the hometown Prince Rupert Rampage prepare to welcome the visiting Kitimat Ice Demons for Game two of what could potentially be a three game series.

The Rampage can remove the need for a third and final game with a victory tonight, as they head into Game Two with a One game to none advantage over the Ice Demons, thanks to last weekends victory at the Tamitik Arena.

The home squad will be looking for another strong offensive performance, though one that perhaps will see the home side take an early lead and not have to launch an ongoing comeback effort as was required last weekend in the Aluminum city.

Game one saw Jared Meers provide the pace to the scoring parade with two goals and an assist towards the 6-5 victory over Kitimat, while Kory Movald and Craig Munro also had multiple point efforts during last weeks contest as well.

Shutting down the Ice Demons will probably be key to the Rampage ambitions for moving on in the playoffs and a chase for the Coy Cup.

While the Kitimat squad had struggled significantly to find its scoring groove during the regular season, the playoffs seem to have put an extra step in their stride on the ice. With the Ice Demons showing quite a bit of spark in their first playoff match up and putting their regular season woes firmly in the rear view mirror.

The challenge for the Rampage will be to make sure that they don't provide too many opportunities to encourage the Ice Demons with any further thoughts of a playoff run.

As any hockey fan knows, sending a short series such as a Best of Three to a final winner take all scenario, is not something that any team wants to tempt the hockey gods with.

Among those hoping for a Prince Rupert sweep tonight, will be those organizing the 58th Annual All Native Basketball Tournament, should there be the need for a game three on Saturday, that would make for a hectic turn around of the Civic Centre and the installation of the basketball court in the Arena for the week long tournament.

Puck drop is set for 7:30 tonight at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.

Should Kitimat force a game three it would take place Saturday at 1 PM.

CityWest Community television is ramping up their CIHL coverage as the playoffs move towards the second round, the northwest communications company announced plans this week to broadcast playoff action through February on High Definition channel 310 or Standard Definition channel 10.

More on their plans, as well as the CityWest schedule of games can be found here.

More notes related to Rampage hockey and the CIHL can be reviewed on our Archive page here.