Ice Demons and Stampeders roll on while Terrace edges Wolverines in home opener

The Kitimat Ice Demons remained undefeated, spoiling the new Prince Rupert Rampage’s home opener 4-2 in front of one thousand screaming fans in the arena in Prince Rupert, while the Williams Lake Stampeders ran up a 5-1 lead on rivals Omineca Ice, but had to hang on to win 6-5. In the only other game, the Terrace River Kings edged the Hazelton Wolverines 2-1 in a home-opener game that was tied 1-1 for a long time. The Ice Demons remained in fist place overall, with eight points from four wins and no losses, and Williams Lake created a three way tie at the top of the East Division with its win. The Ice Demons were missing some key players in the lineup and were pushed to the limited by a harder-hitting team looking to impress the 1000 home fans that gave them a thunderous ovation, win, lose or draw. Welcome to the league Rampage fans. Scorers for the Ice Demons were Greg Sabey (Doug Wilson, Nick Smeader), Doug Wilson (Mike Fisk), Blaine Markwart, with the game-winning goal, back in his first game since the 2006 Coy Cup final, (Terry Whelan, Greg Sabey) and Terry Whelan (Greg Sabey and Nick Smeader). The Rampage had an unassisted goal from Dan Wright and a second period marker to temporarily tie the game at 2-2, by Kendall Stacesmith (Travis Helland, Dustin Lorette). Both teams had goals disallowed, Demons on a tip in by Terry Whelan, that referee Brent Andrews said was directed with a high stick, and a goal by Chris Woodrow for the Rampage, that was called offside at the Demons blue line. In Williams Lake, the Omineca Ice, which split a pair with the Stamps two weeks ago, fell behind 5-1, mostly on the basis of a natural hat trick by last year’s CIHL top scorer, Francis Johnson, back from injury to bolster the Stamps offense. The teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the first, but the Johnson hattie gave the Stamps a 4-1 lead at the end of the second. They extended that to 5-1 before the embarrassed Ice surged back, too little, too late as the Stamps held on to win 6-5. Stamps also got goals from Wilf Robbins, Brent McIsaac and Aaron Zurak. Tyler Walsh (2), Rodney Funk, David Boon and Justin Webber had goals for the Ice in their late comeback. In Terrace, the Hazelton Wolverines and the River Kings were tied at 1-1 for most of the game, but the Kings got one to edge Hazelton 2-1 at the end.