Rampage scored early and often as Prince Rupert advances to second round of CIHL playoffs

Bring on the River Kings!
The Prince Rupert Rampage advanced to Round Two after 
defeating the Kitimat Ice Demons on Friday night

It was time to break out the brooms at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre on Friday evening as the hometown Rampage put down any thoughts of resistance from the visiting Kitimat Ice Demons, claiming victory in their first round CIHL playoff series with a convincing 9-3 victory.

The Rampage were quick to the scoring sheet at the four minute mark of the opening period, as Thomas Robinson picked up an unassisted marker to launch the Prince Rupert offensive push.

The two teams would then trade off goals, with Tyler Halliday picking up the second Rampage goal of the night at 13:27, the goal coning with a bit of help from Ryan Stace-Smith.

The Ice Demons fought back to bring the teams even at 16:30 when the took advantage of a Jacob Santurbano penalty call to climb back into the game as the first frame came to an end.

However, with seven goals to come over the course of the next forty minutes, Prince Rupert emphatically put the exclamation mark on the opening round. As the Rhinos brought the visitors season to an end, sending the Ice Demons back to Kitimat with one final loss on the year.

The scoring parade launched at 6:43 of the second, with Ryan Stace Smith picking up his first of two goals for the period, with the first marker a power play goal assisted by Tyler Halliday and Tyler Ostrom.

Seven minutes later Stace-Smith was back in the spotlight picking up the fourth goal of the night for Prince Rupert with an assist going to Marcus Atchison.

Period Three featured a pair of goals in less than fifteen seconds from Kory Movald, who scored at 1:09 and 1:24. Jacob Santurbano and Jean-Luc Fouriner picked up helpers on the fist goal, with Santurbano also in on the second, along with Jared Meers.

Ben Towner added to the Rampage scoring one minute later with an assist going to jared CArter.

Another two minutes on the clock found Kale Burns picking up an unassisted short handed marker, padding the Rampage lead to 8 to 2 with fifteen minutes still to play.

Kitimat gained one goal back midway through the third, but that would be the last of their scoring on the night, Craig Munro brought the night to a close with the final Rampage marker of the game, an unassisted marker at the 18:18 minute point.

The Ice Demons did not leave the playoff race quietly, taking 22 minutes of penalty time on 7 infractions, while the Rampage served 22 minutes in the box as well, after 11 infractions were called through the course of the sixty minutes of play.

Brett Roth claimed the Rampage victory, turning aside 21 of the 24 Ice Demon shots on the night, while Shahar Moudhai gains the final entry in the Kitimat listings for the year, facing 29 shots for his time in the Ice Demon net.

You can review the full boxscore from Friday night here.

The Rampage move on to Round Number Two and a match up Saturday night with Terrace River Kings, with a puck drop of 7 PM at what should a very crowded Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.

In addition to the ice breaker for round two of the CIHL playoffs, the Russell Gamble Gymnasium will also be featuring the final games of the All Native Basketball tournament.

Games Two and Three are scheduled for February 25 and 26 at the Terrace Ice Arena.

The other match up in the CIHL playoffs will see two Cariboo rivals go head to head, with Williams Lake taking on the Quesnel Kangaroos.

Quesnel advanced over the weekend after they battled back from a one game to none deficit and took a pair of games from the Smithers Steelheads.

The Roos knocked the Smithers squad out of the playoffs, thanks to a 2-1 game three victory in Overtime at the Pond.

You can review the Playoff score sheets and find more background on the CIHL playoffs from our archive page here.