The Rampage faced two tough tests over the weekend, with the Williams Lake Stampeders and Quesnel Kangaroos coming to battle at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.
The Rampage opened the scoring against Williams Lake 13 minutes into the first period, when forward Hunter Johnson deposited the puck past Stampeders goaltender Kacey Huffman to give the Rampage a 1-0 lead. Late in the first Rampage forward Jean-Luc Rendell-Fournier took two separate penalties, however, the Rampage killed off both of them.
In the second, the Rampage had three power plays in the first 10 minutes of the period. The Rampage didn’t capitalize on the first two power plays but on the third one, Johnson fired the puck past Huffman for the power play tally giving the Rampage a two-goal lead. As the second period went along, tensions rose leading to Rampage forward Chance Waldhaus and Stampeders defenseman Michael Keyes agreeing to drop the gloves in a fight that saw both players ejected.
The Rampage skated into the second intermission leading 2-0.
The third period got off to a slow start. No major action took place until halfway through the period when Stampeders captain Brendan Pigeon would snap Rampage goaltender Frank Slubowski’s shutout bid by firing the puck into the net. The Stampeders’ jubilation after scoring their first goal didn’t last long because 15 seconds later Rampage captain Kory Movold found the back of the net to restore the two goal Rampage lead.
With just over five minutes left to play Pigeon would get his second goal of the game to once again cut the Rampage lead to one. As the clock counted down the Stampeders would pull their goalie to try and find the tying goal, but the Rampage held on for the win.
Rampage head coach Roger Atchison credited the win to a stellar penalty kill.
“Killing off those penalties was big, it got the momentum going for us and enable us to maintain our lead.”
With another two goals against Williams Lake Hunter Johnson tied the league lead in goals. Johnson has been a big part of the Rampage’s success, said Atchison.
“Hunters our goal scorer. He’s our go to guy. When we get chances on the power play that’s the guy we want on the ice.”
Fresh of a win against Williams Lake the day before the Rampage took to the ice for a game against the Quesnel Kangaroos. Quesnel got the first goal of the game early in the first when forward Eli Jarvis beat Frank Slubowski to give the Kangaroos a 1-0 lead with a power play goal. no major action happened until the end of the period when Quesnel Forward Tanner Cochrane fired the puck into the net to give Quesnel a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission.
The Rampage got on the board five minutes into the second when Jean-Luc Rendell-Fournier scored to cut the Kangaroos lead to one. Just four minutes after the Rampage goal Cochrane scored his second of the game to restore Quesnel’s two-goal advantage.
Nine minutes after Quesnel’s third goal, the Rampage scored again as Hunter Johnson scored his tenth goal of the season. Quesnel quickly responded as forward Brett Mero made the score 4-2.
The Rampage once again cut the Kangaroos lead to one thanks to a goal from forward Cole Atchison. The Rampage spent the next eight minutes fighting to get the tying goal but with under four minutes to play Quesnel forward Brody Dale gave the Kangaroos their two goal lead back. Now down two goals late in the game, the Rampage pulled their goalie but would concede an empty net goal that made the final score 6-3 in favour of Quesnel.
The scoreboard doesn’t tell the full story of the game, said Atchison
“I thought our guys fought hard. We had some plays I thought we should have capitalized on but we didn’t. Their goalie made a couple of good saves and I thought our goalie played great. Considering how banged up we are, it wasn’t too bad. The score doesn’t look very good, but we were right in it until the very last couple of minutes.”
