Wednesday, January 24, 2018

With Second place claimed, Prince Rupert Rampage set for Round One playoff showdown with Stampeders

Twin victories over the weekend, pushed the Prince Rupert Rampage into the playoffs with a surge of momentum, as the hometown Rhinos continue to find their offensive range at just the right time.

The Rampage secured a second place finish in the CIHL Regular season on the strength of two solid performances on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.

Saturday, the Rampage had a high scoring and physical affair with their regional rival from Terrace, with Prince Rupert coming out of the sixty minutes with an 8 to 5 victory over the River Kings.

The Score sheet on the night for the Rhinos included a natural hat trick for Tyler Matalone who scored three consecutive goals in period number three to salt away the victory on the night.

The Rampage battled back hard in the first period to keep the River Kings close, heading into the dressing room with a one goal deficit at 4-3.

Period two was all Rampage with two goals in the middle period giving them a 5-4 lead at forty minutes.

The final frame saw the Rampage take control of the game as they held their ground to fend off a bit of a Terrace push back, before scoring a couple of insurance markers to make for the final 8-5 score.

The review of the Rampage side of the scoreboard for Saturday night was as follows:

Period 1

Cole Atchison on the power play with an assist from Cody Hodges at the seven second mark.

Michael Keys again on the power play with assists going to Jean Luc Fournier and Kory Movold at 9:43

Jacob Santurbano at 11:50 with assists to Tyler Ostrom and Tyler Matolone

Period 2

Cole Atchison unassisted at 7:43

Ten minutes later it was Kory Movold listed in the goals column, with assists to Jared Meers and Jean Luc Fournier at 17:34

Period 3

The final frame was the Tyler Matalone highlight reel, led off by an unassisted marker at 7:48.

He followed that up at 17:18 with assists to Jean Luc Fournier and Jordan Vendtielli

Matalone's final goal on the night came at 19:12 with Jean Luc Fournier once again providing the helper.

Saturday's game made for a busy first forty minutes for the officiating crew with  a total of 91 minutes of penalty infractions called, with the Rampage assessed 41 minutes on 11 calls, while the visitors spent 50 minutes in the box on 9 infractions.

The teams were on their best behaviour for the final frame with no penalty calls issued.

Jarrod Hildebandt picked up the win in the Rampage nets with 28 saves on 33 shots faced, the Rampage made things tough on Darren Bealieua in the Terrace goal he turned aside 19 of the 27 shots directed his way

The full score sheet from Saturday's game can be reviewed here.

Sunday, the Quesnel Kangaroos were in town to wrap up their Northwest tour and help bring the curtain down on the CIHL regular season.

Keeping to their scoring pace of late, the Rampage took advantage of their scoring chances on the afternoon, along with a depleted by injury line up for the visiting Roos to claim a 6-0 victory over an ornery Quesnel team who spent much of the game providing power play opportunities for their hosts.

Though despite all of the Kangaroo penalties the Rampage only scored one of their six goals with the man advantage.

Tyler Ostrom opened the scoring in period one with an unassisted marker at the seven minute mark, followed by Jared Meers who also went solo on the score sheet at just after the twelve minute point.

Period two saw three Rampage goals through the middle twenty minutes, with Cody Hodges scoring at 5:20 with a helping hand from Tyler Ostrom.

Jared Meers grabbed his second goal of the game on the Power play fifteen seconds later, with Ostrom and Kory Movold getting the assists.

Jordan Weir wrapped up the second period push from home side, converting assists from Jean Luc Fournier and Tyler Ostrom for the fifth goal of the game at just before the thirteen minute mark.

Just after they dropped the puck for Period Number Three, Cole Atchison fired off the final goal of the day and the regular season, finding the range for goal number six at just thirty five seconds into the final frame with Cody Hughes and Allan Kelm on the scoresheet with assists.

What few players that Quesnel had to call on seemed in a snarly mood with the Kangaroos serving  47 minutes of penalty time on 14 infractions, while the Rampage were off to the penalty box for 20 minutes in total on six penalty calls.

Brett Roth held the Roos off the score sheet for the full sixty minutes turning aside all 25 shots that were directed his way, taking the loss for the visitors was Kyle Michalovsky who made 38 saves on 44 shots.

You can review Sunday's game line here.














The Rampage will be looking to continue on with their offensive display as they head into the first round of the CIHL playoffs and the Saturday evening opener with the Williams Lake Stampeders set for the Cariboo city.  

Games Two and Three (if required) of the Best of Three playoff series will be back in Prince Rupert next weekend, with games set for Saturday February 3rd and should it be needed to decide the series, a Sunday afternoon showdown on February 4th.

As the Stamps are hosting this years Coy Cup they have an automatic spot in the four team Seniors Championship that follows the CIHL playoffs, things are a little more precarious for the Rampage who will need to win this series to move on to the next round.



The other playoff match up in the first round pits the Quesnel Kangaroos against the Terrace River Kings, with the league leading River Kings in the Cariboo city Saturday to launch their best of three series.

A look back at the full 2017-2018 Regular season can be found on our Rampage Results page.

The latest notes from the Rampage room on the upcoming trip to the Cariboo and the first round can be found from the Rampage Facebook page and website.

A wider overview of the latest CIHL news is available on our archive page here.



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