The Rampage fell to the River Kings ending their bid at a perfect season.
Terrace beat Prince Rupert by a final score of 4-3 in Saturday night’s game, Nov. 10. The game was a nail-biter that was tightly contested from puck drop all the way through to the final whistle.
Rampage coach Roger Atchison said his team wasn’t prepared early on.
“Terrace came ready to play that’s for sure. We started slowly and we were fighting an uphill battle the whole way,” Atchison said.
It was an uncharacteristically low scoring affair between the two teams, considering the previous two match-ups saw at least 12 combined goals scored.
Terrace held a 1-0 lead through the first period, after outshooting the Rampage by a total of 12-7.
The score would stay 1-0 until a little over halfway through the second when defenceman Jacob Santurbano scored to level things at 1-1.
It had looked as if the game would be going into a tie in the third, until, with only three seconds left in the middle frame, Terrace converted on a two-on-one breakaway to make the score 2-1.
Atchison said that late goal snuffed out any momentum the Rampage had. “I thought they out played us in the first, but we performed better in the second and to give that one up late, definitely took a bit of the wind out of our sails.”
Prince Rupert would score less than a minute into the third making it 2-2, then the teams traded goals making it 3-3.
With six minutes left in the game, Ben Reinbolt gave Terrace the lead and they never looked back from there.
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The final 30 seconds of the third was a flurry of Rampage chances, but River King goalie Darren Bealiea stood tall and stymied Rupert’s final onslaught.
With the loss, Rupert drops to 6-1 on the season while the River Kings improve to 3-4 on the year.
First place is still firmly in Rupert’s grasp as they will look to put this one behind them as they prepare to face the Williams Lake Stampeders next week on November 17.
