The Prince Rupert Rampage secured their spot in the CIHL playoffs on Saturday night, beating the Kitimat Ice Demons in a game that required a shootout to resolve.
After some good back and forth action, Prince Rupert opened the scoring with 5:12 to go when Jared Andreesen wnet high on Jamie Moran with a shot from the circle, which was followed by another Rampage goal just under three minutes later by Jared Meers that was from a similar spot as the first goal. That was all the scoring in the first, giving the Rampage the 2-0 lead going into the second.
In the second the Ice Demons found their game and came out firing. Ian Coleman put one past Keith Movold with 12:41 to go to pull the Demons to within one, and Chris Vilness tied things up with 4:32 to play. Craig Hewitson gave Kitimat their first lead with 51 seconds left to play and, while it looked like Kitimat would take that lead into the final frame, a turnover resulted in a Jacob Santurbano goal with just six seconds to play to tie things up at three headed into the third.
In the third Kitimat would regain their lead with Derek Wakita beating Movald 4:27 into the period. Johnny Hunt would even things up at four with 11:11 to play, and that would be all the scoring in the game, leading to a shootout to determine whether or not the Rampage would see the postseason.
In the shootout, Craig Hewitson scored on his first attempt followed by a goal by Brett Stava. From there Movold shut the door on Wade Masch, Andreesen beat Moran and Movold stopped Chris Vilness to secure the two points needed to make the playoffs.
Because Terrace won in their game against Houston, the win bumped the Omenica Ice from the playoffs and the Rampage will open the first round against the Smithers Steelheads, who managed to go a perfect 18-0 this season.