Prince Rupert Rampage punch out of the CIHL playoffs

Three nights of high tempo and physical hockey marked a weekend of CIHL action as Northwest rivals the Terrace River Kings and Prince Rupert Rampage left nothing on the ice in their semi final series.

Less than 48 hours delivered the three games for the semi final match up,  the first of which went to the River Kings on their home ice on Friday evening, as Terrace took game number one of the weekend series by a score of 5-4.

The Bounce Back game came Saturday night when the Rampage, facing a do or die situation, turned on the offence with 8 goals, holding the River Kings to just one in an 8-1 thrashing that set the stage for the series finale elimination game of Sunday afternoon.

It was a match up where the Rampage could have used a few of the goals from the night before as they and the River Kings battled through the sixty minutes of play, the Rampage playing from behind for much of it.

The River Kings stretched out their lead into the third period to claim the 6-3 final, with the familiarity of three games in less than two days finally breeding some healthy contempt, sparking a brawl at the buzzer to bring the game to its conclusion.

The officials managed to separate the two sides long enough for the post game handshakes, a tenuous peace treaty that brought a few more unpleasantries before the two teams went their separate ways.

For the Rampage the CIHL playoff season comes to an end, the River Kings now move on to take on the Quesnel Kangaroos who dispatched the Williams Lake Stampeders in two straight games.

The Summaries for all three games have yet to be provided to the CIHL stats page, once they have been delivered, we'll provide them as an update here and on our Rampage results page.

Summary for Friday, February 15
Summary for Saturday, February 16
Summary for Sunday, February 17

The schedule for the CIHL finale yet to be listed by the league office.

The Coy Cup

It's been a strange run for the River Kings so far, who are playing to win; but not to go the full distance towards a Senior championship.

Earlier this month the River Kings announced that they won't be travelling to compete for the Coy Cup in Fort St. John. The team cited availability of players and travel costs as their main concerns.

For Terrace their playoff hockey has taken them through  a path by way of  Kitimat and now Prince Rupert and should they win in Quesnel that will be the end of their hockey for the year as well.

That would mean that regardless of their fate in the upcoming series, the Quesnel Kangaroos will be the CIHL representative in the Coy Cup Finals.

Results of the CIHL finals can be found as the games play out from our Rampage scoreboard page.

You can review the season from training camp to playoffs from our CIHL archive page here.

To view the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.