CIHL Season set to go down to the wire in weekend play

The road to the top spot in the CIHL for the Prince Rupert Rampage will most likely require a sweep of their final two games in the 2019-20 regular season.

The idle Rampage were watching the past weekend scoring summaries on Monday morning and the results from Smithers would serve to chart their course for this Friday and Saturday, that after the Terrace River Kings vaulted over the Rhinos to reclaim first place overall in the waning days for the regular season.

The River Kings took advantage of a late game power play opportunity to get ahead of the Steelheads for good and claim a 6-5 victory in the hard fought battle.

The reward for their perseverance the shift into first, something which makes this Friday's showdown against the Rampage at the Jim one that will be filled with even more drama than usual for the two Northwest Rivals.

The two teams who always bring their A game to the rink when they meet up will be looking to secure the top spot, though should the Rampage come out on top, they will still need a bit of help on the weekend, with Terrace set to wrap up their season at home Saturday night in a return match up with Smithers.

The Rampage will also need to tend to business at home on Saturday, when the Hazelton Wolverines come to town.

The weekend will also be worth watching to see if the Rampage players can turn on their offence to make a move towards the top of the Scoring leaders for 2019-20.

Heading into the final games of the regular season, five Rampage players are still in the midst of the leading scorer conversation.

The path a little less challenging for Tyler Ostrom (20 points)  and Judd Repole (20 points) than it is for Kory Movold (18 points ) Kolton Chasse (18 points) and Jordan Weir (17 points ).

All of the CIHL's offensive threats are chasing League leader Tayden, Fowler McNab who currently has 25 points on the strength of 16 goals and 9 assists.

Puck drop Friday against Terrace is 8 PM at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.

Saturday's regular season finale with Hazelton will have a 7 PM Start.

Keep track of any game time notes from the Rampage Facebook page here.

For more notes on the CIHL see our archive page here.

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