In the west coast city, the rookie Prince Rupert Rampage gave their fans what they have been waiting for over the first few weeks of the season – an exciting 3-2 overtime with over the Terrace River Kings, who had been scoring in bunches of late, and making up ground on the league leading Kitimat Ice Demons.
On Saturday Terrace was held to two goals by the hard skating Rampage, who had two of their own to take the game into Rupert’s second shoot out of the season.
This time they prevailed with Chris Brlcic outlasting 14 O/T shooters to score the winner for the Rampage’s first win of the year.
Brad Owen and Trevor Shannon had goals for the Kings and Jeremy Boot and Ryan Stace-Smith each scored for the Rampage. Although it wasn’t a full sell-out, but Prince Rupert officials reckoned at least 800 fans saw what they had been waiting for.
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It's the shootout winner and the first regular season win for the rookie Prince Rupert Rampage. Scorer is Chris Brlecic,
breaking a shootout tie, as the Rampage defeat Terrace River Kings 3-2 Photo courtesy of Shaun Thomas . |
In Hazelton, the Kitimat Ice Demons had a four-goal third period to out-distance the Wolverines who had skated well until giving up a single goal mid-way through the second period.
Although this was an enjoyable fast-skating game to watch, it was clearly frustrating for the Wolverines to play well for 40 minutes and then wilt after the first goal of the game by Demons’ Ian Coleman, finishing off with a tap-in on a Craig Hewitson pass.
After that it was a Demons’ control display, with four more goals, one of them short-handed in the last second of a two minute penalty to Jeremy Brady, for hooking, and with the exception of a last minute power-play flurry by the Wolverines, it was all over other than to see whether Jamie Moran completed his shut-out.
Demons were missing the current top points scorers, Jeff Mildenberger and Terry Whelan, as well as heavy hitters Greg Sabey and Trent Bossence – and it looked as if that might be making a difference for the Demons in the scoreless first period, where they out shot the Wolverines 11-8, with neither Moran or Cody Smith ever really in much trouble.
The Ice Demons took the one goal lead on the tap-in goal by Ian Coleman, set up at the side of the crease by Craig Hewitson, with Adam Buick also assisting.
It looked like Demons would remain in command - but a five on three followed by a five on four power-play for the Wolverines gave Jamie Moran a work out – but he was equal to the task - handling 12 Wolverines’ shots in the period, while the Demons directed 12 at Cody Smith. Demons had eight minutes in penalties, with Wolverines taking four.
In the third period, however, the Demons seemed to find new skating legs, while the Wolverines seemed to run out of gas. Just under three minutes into the period, Paul Plante carried the puck with speed into the Wolverines zone in a two-on-one with Craig Hewitson, who easily put Plante’s pin point cross ice pass behind Smith. Less than two minutes later the same two players combined again, with Plante sending Hewitson into the Wolverines zone alone and he blasted a high hard shot over Smith’s right shoulder into the top corner of the net to give Demons a three-goal lead.
That was extended to 4-0 on the same shift, 30 seconds later when Hewitson put Coleman in the clear for his second goal of the game and under a minute after that Coleman, Plante and Hewitson all combined to get Hewitson’s hat trick goal, all in the same period. Hewitson had points on all five goals.
In another important Saturday CIHL game, the Houston Luckies defied the predictors and held off the Smithers Steelheads with a well deserved home ice 5-3 victory. The Steelheads had two of three goals on the power play as the Luckies stretched their luck playing short-handed 10 times.
This was a short-handed Luckies team playing strong defensive hockey with the Steelheads finding Don Kenzle on form.
In another hard-fought Eastern Division match up, the Omineca Ice and the Williams Lake Stampeders were hard at it in Williams Lake.
The Ice squeaked out a 4-3 overtime win in a hard fought contest with some good goaltending at both ends from Willie Sellars and Paul Simoes. There as no scoring in the first period, with the Stamps taking a lead early in the second period on a goal from Jason Wright.
Omineca's Joel Boyetchko tied the game and they took a 2-1 lead into the intermission, on a goal by Paul Girodat. The visitors opened a two goal lead two minutes into the final period as Tyler Walsh beat Willie Sellars. Jason Wright would notch his second of the night a couple minutes later to close the gap to one.
Ice netminder, Paul Simoes did his best to hold off any Stampeder comeback, but, with Sellars out of the net for the extra attacker, former Ice player, Brent McIsaac, gained a measure of revenge on his old team by notching the equalizer with just 51 seconds in the game.
A noisy Stampeder crowd erupted at the equalizing goal. In the shootout, Paul Simoes stopped three Stampeder shooters, while Paul Girodat was the lone Ice player to beat Willie Sellars. The Ice improved their record to 3-3, while the Stamps are now 4-4-1.
In the Sunday game, however, the Stampeders were in control pretty well from the start, bouncing back to defeat the Ice 10-6. The score was not truly indicative of the play, as this was also a closely played contest. The two teams were tied at 4-4 after the second period, with the shots total only in favor of the home team by a single shot margin, 29-28. The visiting Ice took an early third period lead of 5-4, only to see the home side pour in five consecutive goals to build a comfortable 9-5 lead. Both teams traded goals to finish the contest at 10-6. Scoring for the Stampeders were Robin Gilbert with three, Francis Johnson with a pair, and Jason Wright, Kent Courage, Aaron Zurak, Wilfred Robbins and Nathan Zurak all with singles.
Paul Girodat, Darren Gouliquer and Josh Weber each had two goals for the Ice. The game featured four power play goals recorded by each team as well as a pair of shorthanded goals from the Stampeders penalty killers. Willie Sellars recorded the win, while Paul Simoes took the loss.
The 5-4-1 Stamps do not play until November 29 and 30 when they head to Hazelton to face the still-winless Wolverines.
Next week the Ice Demons face the surging Steelheads from Smithers in a Saturday-Sunday double header at Tamitik, while the Omenica Ice will provide a double header challenge to the Terrace River Kings in Terrace in the only four games on the schedule
P
W
L
East
Division
Stampeders
10
5
4
1
53 45 11
Smithers
Steelheads
5
3
2
0
27
18
6
Omineca
Ice
7 3
4
0
33
42
6
West
Division
Kitimat
Ice Demons 10 9
1
0
54
18 18
Hazelton
9
0
9
0
22
57
0