After opening the season on the road, the Prince Rupert Rampage finally played in front of their hometown fans on Saturday night, but fell short of picking up the win, falling 5-3 to the Kitimat Ice Demons.
For the first 20 minutes of the game the Rampage and the Ice Demons played even hockey with Keano Wilson of Prince Rupert and Tyson Craven of Kitimat stopping every puck that came their way.
The scoreless first gave way to an avalanche of goals in the second as the offence for the two teams started to click.
The Demons opened the scoring with Derek Wakita beating Wilson under four minutes into the frame, But the Rampage responded with Thomas Robinson finding the back of the net on the powerplay and less than three minutes later, Kory Movld gave the Rampage the lead with 9:10 to go.
Sid Spracklin extended the lead to two with just more than five minutes left in the period. But with the clock running down, the Demons showed why they are multiple league champions.
Steve Venman pulled the Demons to within one with 1:47 to go and, with just six second left on the clock, Ian Coleman tied things up at three heading into the third.
Unfortunately for the home team, the momentum picked up by the Demons late in the second carried into the third as Dave Venman regained the Kitimat lead with 11:44 to play and Derrick Delisser put the nail in the coffin with 2:19 to play to give the Demons the 5-3 victory.
This weekend the Rampage will travel to the Bulkley Valley to play the league-leading Smithers Steelheads and the Houston Luckies. The next time the Rampage play at home will be Nov. 24 and 25 against Williams Lake and Quesnel.