Fernie 3 @ CVR 0

Fernie 3 @ Columbia Valley 0

Aiden Kruhlak shut out the Rockies 3-0 on the road Friday night in Invermere. Kruhlak stopped all 32 shots and was named as the first star.

Taylor Haggerty had a goal and an assist, Riley Enns scored his ninth and the emerging Ben Skarsen scored his fourth of the year. D-man Eric Martin had 2A

A few penalties in this game but no PP goals. The Riders were 0-6 and the Rockies 0-8 and the shots were 25-32 CVR. Great fan support in CVR Friday with 675 attending.

Round’ the League

Princeton won 5-3 in Creston, Princeton is here in Fernie tonight Saturday Dec 2nd . Kimberley kept pace by winning 3-2 in Spokane, Parker Konneke’s second (14) G was the winner.

Ghostriders win 3-2 in OT against the Rockies

The Fernie Ghostriders defeated the first place Columbia Valley Rockies 3-2 in overtime Saturday night in Fernie.

Overview

The Riders started the game on fire, dominated the play, and scored two goals in the first six minutes before the Rockies finally got back on track later in the period and scored one of their own.

In the second both teams had great chances but the Rockies scored the only goal and the period ended tied 2-2.

The Rockies went ahead 3-2 eight minutes into the third but just thirty-nine seconds later the Ghostriders tied it up setting up the overtime that the Riders ended in the first minute.

Very entertaining fast game, probably the best game this season.  Fernie had the edge in shots but either team could have won this game.

Game Notes 

Cole Fournier scored the OT winner on a great breakaway pass from Liam Monro. Smooth skating D-man Eric Martin scored his first as a Rider, in 5 games he has 7 points. Top prospects Tysin Mulligan CVR had an assist and FGR Nick Kunyk had the win in net. Speaking of nets, they come off their moorings way too easily and it is becoming a big problem. Jack Lambert’s goal was his eighth, he has two goals and four assists in his last five games. Lucas Desjarlais had two assists.

Nick Kunyk blocked 20 of 23 shots for his 9th W and CVR’s Nate Glenn stopped 35 of 39. Both teams went 0-2 on the power play and the attendance was 936.

Tier 1 Jr A Funhouse

 The “Outlaw” BCHL will be playing some games in Quesnel on Nov 25-26.

They were hinting that a team in Quesnel might be a good fit for the new league.

Trouble is the new Modern Hockey League says that all players will play for free  by 2025. No league fees or anything. 

Not sure exactly but my guess is to be free to play teams would probably need to get around 2000 fans a game, or have a rich sugar daddy. 

Travel in the BCHL from Prince George to the Island is long and expensive.

Anyway, I’d bet Quesnel, who put forth a very detailed financial application to the KIJHL several years ago, realizes they just wouldn’t be able to play in the new BCHL when they couldn’t make it in the old BCHL.

But they sure as hell could make it in BC Hockey’s new Tier 1 pay to play league and everybody knows it.

The KIJHL and PIJHL and VIJHL will probably have teams applying for Tier 1 status, but they will be at the mercy of BC Hockey who will make them dance and will definitely want  their Soprano points $ before they say who gets in. 

Just because you want in doesn’t mean... 

Quesnel and maybe Williams Lake, who also made detailed applications to the KIJHL will be in the running along with any failed BCHL teams.

The travel in the new league could also be long and expensive, and what’s left of the KIJHL will probably lose a few of their short road trip games. 

And why would the tier 1 teams stay in the KI, PI or VI  anyway instead of making their own league and keep their league fees for themselves.

All this Jr A dirty dancing  just to appease BC Hockey in their quest to stop any under 18 players from leaving for the AJHL or SJHL? Say it ain’t so...

We haven’t officially heard exactly what the requirements will be to go Tier 1 but to all the applying teams, you better have a better banker and bus than you have now.

From Twitter... what a prize !

Riders win two of three on the road trip from hell

The Ghostriders went on a long three games in three days road trip last week where they played games in Kamloops  L 6-2 , 100 Mile House W 6-2 and Chase W 2-1.

I watched all three games on the internet and by far the best video and announcer was from Chase.

To me the biggest story of the weekend was Liam Monro finally scoring a goal and it was the game winner in Chase and he assisted on both Peigan’s goals in 100. If these two can get going look out. Peigan only scored one last season but now has three in the last couple of weeks and two were GWG.

Credit to the Ghostriders winning 2-1  in Chase. The Heat did not play on the weekend and faced the Riders on their third game in 3 days. The only goal they scored was short handed when a D tried to handle the puck while being the last guy back. Three games in a row will do that to a player. 

Kamloops is no pushover this year  and they defeated Sicamous 3-0, the Eagles are the top team in the KI with a 10-2 record. And what’s with these coaches nowadays Eagles Coach Nick Deschenes represented Canada at the World Functional Fitness Masters and Rider HC Ty Valin completed a triathlon in Idaho last summer... where’s candy store Ken Hitchcock when you need him

Kimberley (8-3) is here in Fernie on Friday and Beaver Valley (8-1) on Saturday. They will be two very tough opponents 

From the Ghostrider website

The long bus ride to Kamloops seemed to hurt the Riders and they fell behind the Storm  2-0 in the first period, 4-0 in the second and in the end they lost  6-2.

The Ghostriders two goals in Kamloops came late in the third period but scoring a couple of goals seemed to give them some sort of energy that spilled over into their game Saturday in 100 Mile House where they won 6-2 . The Riders had 2-0 and  5-2 period leads and with a goal in the third they finished  a 6-2 win.

In Chase on Sunday afternoon the Ghostriders were down 1-0 but scored 2 goals in the third and got by the Heat 2-1.

Highlights of the three game weekend.

In Kamloops Kyler Watson (Munro) scored his 6th goal and Taylor Haggerty (Karam) scored his 4th goal on the PP. 

Both teams went 1-6 on the power play. The shots were 36-30 Kamloops and the attendance was not reported, but the announcers said there were hardly any fans at the game.

In 100 Mile the Riders faced off against their former Coach Dale Hladun (Duner) and easily won the game. The goal scorers were Kyler Watson (PP) and Gaege Johnson short handed while Cole Fournier and Malachai Peigan each scored 2. Peigan’s first goal was the game winner it was his second GWG of the year. Nick Kunykwas in net for his second win of the season. Cole Fournier and Kyler Watson each had 3 points and Liam Monro had 2 assists.

 

Both teams went 1-5 on the power play and the shots were 37-30 Fernie. The attendance was 261

In Chase the Riders gave up a short-handed goal in the second period but Taylor Haggerty (Fisher Lambert) scored to tie the game then Liam Monro (Watson Kennedy) scored on a breakaway to give the Riders a 2-1 win. This was the Heat’s only game on the weekend but still the Riders outplayed them and probably should have scored a couple more. For Monro that was his first goal and it was the game winner. Nick Kunyk was in net and now has a 3-0 record.

Fernie went 0-5 and Chase 0-3 on the Power Play

The shots were 38-21 FGR

Attendance 171

Kyler Watson had 2 goals and 3 assists in three games.

Liam Monro 1 goal and 3 assists

Cole Fournier 2 goals and 1 assists 

Malachai Peigan 2 goals

Taylor Haggerty  2 goals

 

Full Ghostrider Scoring

  

Round’ the League

Kimberley (7-2) only played one game last week a 2-0 win in Creston. Kimberley is in Fernie this Friday October 27th. Beaver Valley (8-2)  plays in Fernie on Saturday the 28th, they defeated Spokane 8-0 on Friday then lost 2-1 to Castlegar on Saturday. That was their first loss of the season. The first place Rockies (8-3) lost 4-2 at home to Grand Forks then beat Summerland 4-0.

Kamloops (6-2) is no pushover, they also won Saturday 3-0 over Sicamous who are 10-2 with the most points in the KI.

Ghostriders go down to a more sensible 23 players

 The Ghostriders go down to a way more sensible 23 players from the ridiculous 25 man roster.

Hockey Canada’s new roster rule this year is to allow all teams to carry 25 players all season. I believe their reasoning is because of all the Outlaw hockey leagues showing up lately, and now literally hundreds of players will not be available to the Outlaws. Anyway...

With Hockey Canada’s new 25 man rule it meant that five players had to sit out each night. Somehow, on some other planet this made sense... Hockey Canada's motto is, get this ...

After the trade Coach Ty Valin will be able to get  Ben Skarsen and Fernie’s Breaden Jack on the ice more often, and if needed, he still has room for two more 20’s. 

Callin the Shots

 The Kimberley Dynamiters were just awarded the right to host the first ever Junior A Championships April 18-21. The new Jr A Championship replaces the old Jr B Cyclone Taylor Cup.

The KIJHL getting the tournament twice in a row tells me a few things.

1/ BC Hockey is callin' the shots on the new Jr A league and all the KIJHL, PIJHL and VIJHL can do is watch.

2/ Kimberley was a good choice with their almost 2000 seat arena and expected attendance to probably average between 1000 and 1700. Not sure if anyone else could get those #... Plus it’s very close to Cranbrook and will draw the curious BCHL fans.

3/ An even better choice would have been to force Kimberley use the arena in Cranbrook. Really comfortable seats and room for 4000+. Anyone who wanted to go could just walk up and get in. But Cranbrook is now a city of “Outlaws”  with evil players referees and coaches that BC Hockey wants to get even with.

4/ This sends a message IMO. A simple look at attendance will tell you that probably at least half of the BCHL teams will never be able to offer the “Free to Play” option so will be joining the new Jr A league in the future. These are big market teams compared to most of the KIJHL PIJHL and VIJHL towns and they will be able to average  600 plus fans. What does that tell you.

5/ Also lots of chatter about former failed BCHL franchises in Quesnel and Williams Lake wanting back in the game and they won’t want back in to the super expensive BCHL... the BCHL wouldn’t want them anyway. Bet they could average 600+.

6/ The KIJHL once had the power to reject Q and WL  because of travel costs, but now with BC Hockey “Callin the Shots” the former Jr A teams will probably see a red welcome matt.

Lots of fun ahead as BC Hockey gradually releases the conditions of their new Jr A Tier 1 league. And as the most hated writer in the KI... we will be here to comment. 

 

Riders Win 3-2

 The Ghostriders (2-1) got their second win of the season Tuesday night with a 3-2 win over the visiting Creston Thunder Cats.  

Creston scored the only goal in the first period,  the Riders scored two in the second and in the third the teams traded goals.

Both teams had a PP goal and the shots ended up 37-33 Creston.

This was not a physical game and the power plays were Creston 1-3 and Fernie 1-2.

While protecting a 3-1 lead late in the third the Riders took a needless crosschecking penalty in Creston’s end and it almost cost them the game when the Cats big line scored to make it 3-2.

I think a lesson was learned.

 Creston took a penalty of their own a few minutes later and had to pull their goalie for a chance to even the game and they had a couple of Grade A chances but Aiden Kruhlak made the big stops when it mattered most. 

Anyway a win is a win... Captain Taylor Haggerty’s second goal was the game winner.