By Shaun Thomas - The Northern View
Published: November 10, 2009 11:00 PM
A sold-out crowd packed the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre arena on Saturday night to watch the Rupert Rampage take on the league leading Kitimat Ice Demons in an exciting game that took four rounds of shootout action to decide.
Kitimat, though, came out of the gate quickly as Geoff Morgan scored on one of the team’s first shot of the game just 90 seconds into the period to give the Demons the 1-0 lead. But the Demons would find themselves in penalty trouble in the early going and the Rampage would make them pay as Travis Helland’s shot from the blue line got through the crowd and past netminder Jamie Moran to tie things up at one with 11:07 to play. That would turn out to be the only goals of the period and the teams went to the locker room tied 1-1.
After some back and forth action to start the period the Rampage dodged a bullet in the form of a five-on-three penalty kill midway through the period. That penalty kill would prove invaluable as Rob Millar picked up a loose puck and went five-hole on the breakaway for a shorthanded goal that gave the Rampage a 2-1 lead with 8:14 to play. Once again the two teams would prove equal for the remainder of the period and the Rampage took a 2-1 lead into the third.
But that lead was short lived as Daniel Mayer’s shot from the point beat Keith Movold to tie things up at two just 45 seconds into the third. Chris Brlecic would give Rupert the lead again with 14:36 to play, and it looked like the Rampage would be walking away with the win as the clock ran down. But with 2:22 to play, Jonathan Aiken’s shot through a crowd found the net to tie the game up at two, and as the buzzer went the teams prepared for the
shootout.
Blaine Markwart went first for Kitimat and was denied, as was Millar of Rupert, Mayer of Kitimat, Aaron Armstrong of Rupert, Geoff Morgan of Kitimat and Colt Stava of Rupert. The Demon’s Derek Wakita put one past Movold, and Kitimat celebrated the win when Brlecic was unable to beat Moran.
The Rampage host Burns Lake this weekend for a double header
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