River Kings move into CIHL finals after eliminating Prince Rupert last weekend

The last home ice date in the Northwest for 2017 will go to the Terrace River Kings as they open the 2017 CIHL Finals at home tomorrow night at the Terrace Ice Arena.

The game marks the first of what could be a very entertaining best of three showdown between the River Kings and the Williams Lake Stampeders.

The match up between the two CIHL rivals marks the second time in three seasons that Terrace and Williams Lake have pushed through the playoffs into the Finals.

Terrace punched their ticket into the league final last Saturday when the took down the final charge of the Prince Rupert Rampage, as the Rhinos fell short by a score of 5-2, the Rupert goals going to Thomas Robinson who converted a Cole Morris pass at the 1 minute point of period number two, a goal which brought the two teams even, before Terrace ramped up the offence with three consecutive goals over the second and third periods.

The final goal of the season for the Rampage wen to Josh Cook who picked up an unassisted marker at 18:33, with the Rampage net empty the River Kings put the spike in the season for Prince Rupert with an empty netter that secured the 5-2 victory and gave Terrace the series sweep.

Moving on into the finals, a tough challenge awaits the River Kings, who will be looking to shut down the Stampeder offence, a group which has accumulated 12 Goals for in their only series so far, holding the Quesnel Kangaroos to but four goals in the series that ended last weekend.

Like Williams Lake the River Kings have played some stingy defence holding off the Rampage to but four goals in the two games just wrapped up.

The two squads match up nicely by position and the indications suggest that the series will be a close one and should offer some fast paced and hard hitting hockey to bring the curtain down on the CIHL's championship and propel one of the squads on to the AA Provincial Championship Coy Cup.

Success in the finals however, might pose a significant financial challenge for the winners, this years Coy Cup tournament is being hosted by the Whitehorse Huskies.

The Coy Cup tournament site can be reviewed here.

Before either team can think of the road trip for the end of March however, the weekend work beckons.

Once Saturday's game in Terrace is complete, the River Kings and Stamps will head to the Cariboo for game two and if required a game three to decide the title, those match ups take place next Saturday and Sunday.

You can follow our notes as the CIHL winds down the playoffs from our Scoreboard page here.

For more notes on the Rampage season now at an end see our archive page here.