Friday, November 29, 2019

Rhino's return to the rink Saturday, looking to chase down the River Kings

After more than a month off the CIHL grid, hockey fans can get back into Jim mode on Saturday as the Prince Rupert Rampage hit the ice to take on the Kitimat Ice Demons, the game marking their first game back since a 4-3 road victory in Smithers on October 26th.

As we noted earlier this week, a quirk in the schedule making provided the Rampage with the one month plus hiatus, though the weeks of standing watching didn't provide for too much peril heading back to work, with the Rhinos still holding down second place, six points behind the undefeated Terrace River Kings, but with Prince Rupert holding two games in hand to try and make up some of that ground.

That mission starts tonight with the match up with the Ice Demons, a team that has significantly upped their game from previous seasons, currently found in the middle of the pack in the CIHL, only three points out of third place overall.

The Rampage will be looking to shake off any rust from the break for their high powered offence and even with a month away from the offensive zone, Judd Repole with 4 goals and 10 assists is still in the thick of the scoring race, just one point off the pace of leader Chapen Leblond fom Terrace.

At the other end of the rink, the tandem of Tomoki Yoshizawa and Kieran Sharpe return to action holding down the one/two spot in the Goaltenders listings so far this year, with a Goals Against Average of 1.67 and 78 Saves, Yoshizawa sports the best record of all goaltenders in the league heading towards December.

As they do prior to every home game, the Rampage have made the call up to the PRMHA with Reinheardt DeVilliers named as Saturday's skater with the team, he will get a chance to take part in the pre game warm up and other pre game activities.


Game time Saturday is 7 PM at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.

Saturday's match up marks the first of a home and home series for the two teams, with the Rampage on the road next Friday in Kitimat, before they host a Saturday night showdown with Terrace on December 7th, which take place during Rogers' Hometown Hockey weekend in the city.

You can keep up with the Rampage heading into this weekend's play through their Facebook page.

For more notes on the Rhino's and the CIHL see our archive page here.




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