Rampage put a wrap on Regular Season with flurry of goals and First Place finish in West, Second overall in CIHL

The Prince Rupert Rampage scored early and scored often in weekend play, putting 18 pucks in opposing nets in just over 24 hours after a Friday night contest in Kitimat and home ice finale with Smithers.

Cole Atchison got the burst of scoring underway for the Rampage on Friday night just after the first minute of play in Kitimat, his marker at 1:13 assisted by Reid Lindsay and Marcus Atchison setting the pace for a night of scoring for both teams.

That goal was answered by the Ice Demons just seventeen seconds later

Nolan Stava had Prince Rupert's second goal of the night, at 8:31 with the helper going to Gary Sekhon

The Kitimat squad would mark two more  goals on the board before the next Rampage shot found the back of the net, that another goal for Cole Atchison, with Reid Lindsay and Tyler Ostrom gaining the assists.

One more Ice Demon goal sent the teams to the dressing room at the end of the first with the home town Kitimat side up by a score of 4-3.

The Ice Demons added to their lead in the first five minutes of the middle frame, but their rest of the period was all Rampage with a run of five goals.

Reid Lindsay scored at 7:29, assisted by Judd Repole, Nolan Stava was back on the board with an unassisted marker at 9:59.

Lindsay had his second goal of the night at 16:17, assisted once again by Repole.

Less than a minute later Drew Fudger was on the score sheet, assisted by Brody Ward, the second period scoring burst came to an end with a Kory Movold goal, with Brody Hemrich picking up the assist at 18:53

The Third period saw some push back from the Ice Demons who closed the gap to one goal by the mid point of the final period, however the Rampage put the game away in the last minute of play with Kory Movold pushing the twine for the final time at 19:43 with assists going to Cole Atchison and Marcus Atchison.

That made the final score Prince Rupert 9, Kitimat 7

The penalty parade was dominated by the Ice Demons who served 22 minutes of penalty time on seven infractions, while the Rampage served 14 minutes on 7 infractions.

Braydon Ferguson claimed the win in the nets for the Rampage.

The Full Boxscore from Kitimat can be reviewed here.

The Rupert side were back home Saturday, having already clinched a first place finish in the west, but that didn't take their foot off the accelerator with Saturday night's matchup  with Smithers another nine goal night for the Rhinos.

The first goal of the game came on the power play at 3:10 with Cole Atchison hitting the mark, assisted by Hunter Johnson and Judd Repole.

Goal number two in the first period went to Rampage forward  Hunter Johnson , with Judd Repole and Marcus Atchison in on the helpers.

The Second period provided for a surge of offence and five goals for the home side.

Cole Atchison converted a Hunter Johnson pass at 13:30 for the first marker of period 2.

Twenty two seconds alter, Kory Movold was on the score sheet,  assisted by Reid Lindsay.

A few minutes later it was Jonathan Pirillo on the power play, with assists going to Jacob Renaud and Colten Waldhaus.

Two more power play markers would bring the curtain down on Period number 2.

Kory Movold picked up his second of the night at 16:42, with Reid Lindsay and Cole Atchison with the helpers.

Reid Lindsay brought the middle period to an end with his power play goal at18:21 with assists going to Judd Repole and Kory Movold.

The Rampage returned to the score sheet at 8:02 of the final period, a  power play goal for Tyler Ostrom assisted by Nolan Stava.

Smithers scored their only goal of the game at the 11:29 mark of the third, 

The final goal of the night and the Regular Season went to Kory Movold, completing a hat rick on the night at 19:02 another power play marker this one assisted by Jacob Santurbano.

As indicated by the volume of power play opportunities, the game was a physical affair, the visitors not taking kindly to the Rampage offensive push, served 47 minutes on 14 infractions on the night, the Rhino's kept the cool for the most part, assessed only 14 minutes on 7 penalty calls.

Kieran Sharpe gained the win in the nets for the Rampage turning aside all but one of the 24 shots fired his way in the 9-1 Rhino win.

The full Boxscore from Saturday is available here. 

The Rampage netminder's play through the season securing him a second place standing with a 2.99 GAA record in the Goaltenders stats. 

He trailed only Alex Wright in Quensel, who had a 2.24 GAA on the season.

The scoring push for the final weekend served to propel two Rampage players into the top 15 scorers on the season. 

Judd Repole led the team on the offence with 8 goals and 22 assists for 30 points on the year. Placing the Rampage offensive threat in seventh spot overall for 2022-23.

Hunter Johnson claimed a share of fourteenth on the scoring list for the year, that on 13 goals and 8 assists for 21 points.

The Rampage Wins over the weekend gave them a 12 and 4 record for 24 points on the season, one point behind league leading Quesnel, the Rhinos tied with Williams Lake for second place overall.

The Rampage claimed top spot when it comes to Fan Support, far and away the team with the highest attendance, the team saw 6,850 fans come to the Jim this season. That was 2, 360 more fans than the next city on the list which was Terrace.

The Rhinos' average attendance per game was 856 close to three hundred more than Terrace per game.

The CIHL hasn't released the Playoff schedule yet, it's anticipated that the Rampage will return to the ice on Saturday February 18th.

More notes on the CIHL season can be reviewed here. 

We'll pick up our playoff notes once the CIHL has outlined the road ahead towards the Coy Cup.