Opening night presents some interesting challenges for 07-08 finalists - Ice Demons and Houston Luckies

There will be five games - three in the East Division and two in the West Division -- on the opening weekend of the new 2008-09 CIHL season - and a couple of them will likely provide some indications of how well both of last year's playoff finalist teams are prepared for the new schedule. Every game will highlight what should be either existing or new divisional rivalries. The new, unknown and untested Prince Rupert Rampage will be on the road to play the CIHL and Coy Cup champions, the Kitimat Ice Demons, in what will undoubtedly herald a revived inter-city rivalry between the two port cities teams. It will be the Rampage's first foray into the league and there will likely be little way to pre-judge the action. Kitimat, with a large returning contingent from its core group of players, should feel fairly comfortable, playing at home - but Prince Rupert has traditionally provided tough competition. These two teams tangle at 8.00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27 in Kitimat's Tamitik Arena and will go at it again Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. on the same big ice surface. Fans in Smithers will again know that competition between the Steelheads and the Houston Luckies will again be meaningful in the standings. Last year, the Luckies played in the East Division, while Smithers remained in the West, but the arrival of the Prince Rupert Rampage forced the Smithers Steelheads to move to the East Division with Houston, Omineca and Williams Lake. So the points race will start on opening night for these two teams. Still in the East, the Williams Lake Stampeders and Omineca Ice will meet twice in Vanderhoof on opening weekend and it can be expected that this will be a highly-anticipated pair of games in what is bound to be a very tightly competed division this season. The Terrace River Kings got bad news that there would be no ice in the main arena in time for the season opener, scheduled for Oct. 4, when the visitors were to have been the Prince Rupert Rampage. This game now has been postponed and will be re-scheduled at a later date, to be announced. This will mean that Prince Rupert's first three games of the season will be against the Ice Demons, since the Demons are scheduled for the Rampage's home opener on Oct. 11. This will be a one-game weekend for both teams. Things won't get any easier for the Rampage since they will host the Houston Luckies for a cross-division pair of games on the October 18-19 weekend. Hazelton will see its first action on the Oct. 4 weekend when they host the Kitimat Ice Demons. The Demons have never lost at Hazelton, so the Wolverines will be anxious to bring that record to an end.