Rampage look to return to the win column with return home to Jim Saturday night

There's No Place Like Home ...
The Prince Rupert Rampage will look to return to the win
column Saturday night when Smithers comes to town

With two weeks to rest up after a hard slog through the Cariboo that delivered the first two losses of the year for the Prince Rupert Rampage, the team is back home tomorrow night looking to reverse their skid as they take on the Smithers Steelheads.

The Rhino's return to the ice after surrendering 13 goals on their trip to Williams Lake and Quesnel, the November 4 and 5 matchups physical one's as well, as is often the case for the lengthy tour of the Cariboo region. 

Despite the two weeks off since the road trip , the Rampage still find themselves in thick of the battle for first in the CIHL West, trailing the Terrace River Kings at the moment by two points, the River Kings do have an edge based on their Goals For/Against.

Both Teams have some catching up to do towards the league leading Williams Lake Stampeders, they are currently the hot team in the league with a 6-1 record with 12 points in the standings.

As for the weekend ahead, the Rampage will be looking to Judd Repole and Tyler Ostrom to continue to pile on the points, the Rampage Forward currently sits in the upper reaches of the top twenty scorers with 11 points.

Ostrom is having his success from the blue line, with two goals and six assists so far in the season.

Shutting down the offensive minded Steelheads is also key to weekend success, with the Rhinos looking to hold at 24 in the Goals Against totals.

Rampage fans not familiar with the Steelheads, will want to be watching for Brendan Moore, he's the top scorer on the Smithers team with 12 points to date, not too far off his pace is Kodi Schwarz with nine points.

With Saturday's home date comes the call up from the PRMHA, with the Rampage announcing today that Porter Pomponio will be lacing up the skates and take the time with the Rampage. 

The U9 division player with PRMHA will be lining up with his favourite Rampage Goaltender Kieran Sharpe.

Puck drop at the Jim Saturday is 7PM.  Night also features the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

This week delivered some interesting notes on the volume of talent on the ice across the CIHL, the social media stream that tracks developments from all seven teams provided a breakdown of the number of players with some past experience of  high level hockey at the Junior, University and even the pro level.

From the line up reviews:

Junior B experience -- 62 players
Junior A experience -- 30 players
WHL Junior -- 5 players
University/College -- 16 players
Professional -- 8 players 

The listings highlight the changing nature of the CIHL and account for the increases speed and playmaking that has evolved in recent years. 

Once the results are known and the details provided from Saturday's night play you can check our Results page for notes from the Arena.

For a wider overview of all of the CIHL teams see our Archive page here.