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Rampage fall twice to Steelheads on the road

Two losses to the Smithers Steelheads have the Rampage finding themselves five points out of a playoff spot.

The Prince Rupert Rampage must have brought their boombox with them on their road trip to Smithers this past weekend. And their featured song?

“Shots” by LMFAO and Lil’ Jon.

While the rhinos (1-7-1) racked up 72 shots in their two games against the Steelheads, they also gave up 119 according to the CIHL website’s boxscores in two losses this past weekend.

“We recognize it’s a short season and there are not a lot of games, so it’s important to get points against division opponents when you have the chance. Unfortunately, we came up short this weekend,” said Rampage defenceman Derek Baker, who tallied his first marker of the season on Sunday.

During Saturday night’s affair, starting netminder Devon Gerrits turned aside 51 of 59 shots fired his way in an 8-2 loss to the Rampage’s West Division rival.

The team was behind the 8-ball early when the Steelheads (4-3-0) scored three times in just over five minutes of play for the 3-0 advantage. Smithers eventually won the game 8-2.

The Rampage had a few regulars out of the lineup, including Devin Palmer, Jared Meers and Tyler Bates, the latter two of course skate on the top line with Kory Movald.

Taking their place was skater Ben Towner who impressed with two goals and two assists on the weekend for Rupert.

Kory Movald scored his fourth goal of the season to go along with Towner’s tally on Saturday while Randall Groot notched a hat trick for Smithers. Calvin Johnson scored twice in eight seconds to end the game and Eric Smith, Keegan Jack and Jaden Janzen provided singles for the Steelheads.

“They have a few new faces on their team but they play pretty much the same  style of hockey as previous years. They have always been a puck possession team that cycles down low to create scoring chances,” said Baker.

There were zero penalties assessed to either team throughout the whole game.

The next day, with Jarrod Hildebrandt making the start for the rhinos, the team fell 5-3 with defencemen Baker and Greg Sheppard scoring one goal each. Towner also scored.