The Williams Lake Stampeders closed out its regular season with a win and a loss during a two-game northern road trip on the weekend.
Saturday, Williams Lake was looking to extend its second-place Central Interior Hockey League standing taking on the third-place Prince Rupert Rampage, however, fell in overtime in a 5-4 barnburner.
On Sunday the Stampeders travelled to Kitimat to take on the Ice Demons where they rebounded with a convincing 6-2 victory.
Williams Lake fell behind 2-0 early in the first period Saturday, but lakecity defenceman Aaron Zurak cut the deficit to one late in the frame on the power play with assists from Andrew Fisher and Jassi Sangha.
Ryan Conlin tied the contest up at 2-2 early in the second, before Ryan Matthews and Teal Burns doubled the Rampage lead to 4-2 near the midway point of the period. Conlin again lit the lamp with three minutes remaining in the frame, before Darcy Flaherty notched the tying marker with just 49 seconds left in the second period.
A scoreless third period forced overtime, where it was the Rampage’s Tyler Ostrom tallying the game winner near the five-minute mark of the extra frame.
On Sunday taking on the Ice Demons, the Stampeders jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a goal from Dan Cohen, before the Ice Demons’ Ian Coleman tied it up at 1-1 late in the period.
The second was all Williams Lake as Andrew Fisher, Darcy Flaherty and Danny Merth all found the twine to give the Stampeders a 4-1 lead heading into the final period.
Conlin and Cohen scored just seconds apart in the third, before Kitimat’s Reece Abreu closed out the scoring.
The Stampeders are now waiting until the rest of the league’s teams wrap up their regular seasons this weekend before a playoff schedule and regular season standings will be finalized.