Rampage bow out at Coy Cup

The Prince Rupert Rampage quest for the Coy Cup has come to an end, with the Rhinos on the outside looking in for the final two days of the Senior Men's Tournament.

A 4-1 loss Thursday afternoon to the Dawson Creek Canucks sealed their fate, leaving the Rampage with an 0-3 record in the round robin format, with Dawson Creek moving on to today's semi-final with their victory.

In their previous two games the Rampage ran into some tough competition with both the host Fort St. John Flyers and Williams Lake Stampeders offering little room for Prince Rupert to make charge and as it is in a round robin event, if you fall behind early in the week it becomes harder and harder to climb back into the hunt for the playoff round.

While the Rampage did manage to find the net, their opposing teams were able to do the same with more frequency and the Rhinos never quite seemed to be able to slow down some of that push that found them falling behind.

The month long  break between the CIHL championship and the Coy Cup also appears to have taken a toll at times on the energy level.

By comparison the Peace teams had been playing hockey through much of March, with Dawson Creek for instance stepping into the Coy Cup after but a few days of competition in their own league finals, something which went a long ways towards keeping their skating legs fresh for this week.

The Rampage record at the 2019 Coy Cup was as follows:

Thursday
Prince Rupert 1 -- Dawson Creek 4

Wednesday
Prince Rupert 4 -- Williams Lake 7

Tuesday
Prince Rupert 3 -- Fort St. John 8

The host team from  Fort St. John would appear to be the favourites to claim the Coy by the end of Saturday night, they have had an impressive week of round robin play, putting together a 3-0 record along with 20 goals for and but 8 on the against side of the ledger.

They will await the winner of tonights Williams Lake - Dawson Creek matchup which will determine who moves on to the Saturday night finale for the 2019 edition of the Senior Championship.

You can review the flow of the tournament through the week from our archive page here.