The Red Deer TBS Rampage are living up to their name.
The Rampage are tearing up the Junior B Tier 1 South Division of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League. The Red Deer squad improved to a division-best 10-2 Saturday with a 9-6 win over the Calgary Shamrocks at the Kinex, getting four goals from Troy Klaus and three from Trey Christensen.
Playing without a handful of key regulars due to injuries, the Rampage didn’t put the scrappy Shamrocks away until late in the game.
“It was definitely not a strong start for us but we got back to playing our kind of game in the third period, although it took us a while to get focused in that third period,” said TBS head coach Ron Just, who praised the efforts of three tier 2 call-ups, including Justin Moltzahn, who scored a goal.
Just has been impressed with his squad this season, but isn’t getting too far ahead of himself.
“It’s been a great start, but as you can see we still have a lot of things to work on,” he said. “We still have to find that consistency in playing our system for a full game. When we do that we’re a very solid team, but when we are off our systems we can get ourselves into a hole sometimes. There’s a lot of good teams in this league.”
Still, the Rampage are clearly for real, blessed with an abundance of scoring and speed. Deep offensively with the likes of Klaus, Davis and Dustin Reykdal, Spencer Lee, Christensen and Eric Reierson, among several others, the Rampage are difficult to contain.
“Our speed, our depth and balance; those are our strengths,” said Just. “If you look at the league stats most teams rely on two or three guys. If you were trying to scout our team from the standings you would have a hard time doing that.
“We’ve got eight or 10 guys easily who score goals on a consistent basis. That’s really hard to defend against. We can put a lot of pressure on teams. We have a lot of athletes and our transition game is really an important part of our game plan, for sure.”
The Rampage enjoyed a rare trip to Winnipeg June 9-10, flying to the Manitoba capital and returning with a split of two weekend contests versus the Gryphons.
Red Deer roared to a 16-4 win in the opener, then dropped the Sunday contest 13-12, nearly forcing overtime but hitting a goal post with two seconds left.
“It was exciting for the guys to be able to throw their bags on the plane and fly out,” said Just.
“We got there, had lunch and were right into the first game.
“But we had to leave some guys behind due to work and injuries and it caught up to us in the second game.”
The Gryphons return the visit July 8, taking on the Rampage at 11 a.m. at the Kinex.
Tucker Dougherty netted the other TBS goal Saturday.
Netminder Darrian Banack made 35 saves as the Rampage held a 60-41 advantage in shots.