Riders go one and one on the weekend

The Ghostriders split the weekend winning 4-3 at home against the Chase Heat on Friday and losing 6-4 in Invermere on Sunday afternoon.

Chase : The Riders had a 3-1 lead going into the third in the Chase game then surrendered a goal making it 3-2 before Justin Peers scored what would end up being the game winner on a great pass from Cole Keebler to make it 4-2. The Heat scored one then had some good chances after that but Jeff Orser shut the door and got the Riders a much needed win.

Zach Befus was the Player of the Game with 2 goals and 2 assists. Justin Peers had a goal and 2 assists, Cole Keebler 3 assists and Alex Cheveldave 1 goal and 1 assists.

In Invermere the Riders got behind 3-1 in the first and never got back on track. They were down 5-2 at the end of the second and despite scoring a couple of goals in the third it was too little too late and they dropped another road game vs Invermere and are now 0-2  against the Rockies. Interesting games against those guys, so far in the two games we have 7 goals and they have 11.

Zach Befus had 2 goals, Alex Cheveldave 1 goal 2 assists Cole Keebler 1 goal 2 assists, Ryan Teslak and Kevin Pierce 1 assist each.

The Riders go back to Rockyland Nov 6th then the Rockies make their first appearance  here in Fernie on Friday the 13th... what could go wrong here...

So what happened, it's easy, here are the players who had points last weekend, the list of guys without a point is too long to write.

Cole Keebler had 1 goal and 5 assists.
Zach Befus had 4 goals and  2 assists,
Alex Cheveldave 2 goals and 3 assists
Justin Peers had 1 goal and 2 assists but did not play Sunday.
Kevin Pierce 1 assist
Ryan Teslak 1 assist

Power Play
The Rider power play continues to be one of the best in the league, they were 5-12 on the weekend and have 20 PPG's. Zack Befus has 5 of them. Kimberley is next at 19 PPG's.

Injuries
Justin Peers missed Sunday's game but is alright and will be ready for this weekend. Keagan Kingwell has been cleared to play. Aidan Wilson is out for the weekend as is Ben Shushkovsky, but Ben is out for at least a month with a broken rib. Lane Sim is day to day. Spencer Bender is back from injury and expected to play on the weekend.

The Ghostriders have a big test this weekend, they are in Kamloops Friday, 100 Mile Saturday and Chase Sunday afternoon. These games are not scheduled as radio broadcast games. The next home game is Friday November 6th vs Kimberley

PLAYER	GP	G	A	P
Cole Keebler (FG)	14	16	15	31
Jason Richter (KD)	16	15	13	28
Rainer Glimpel (OC)	14	13	15	28
Eric Buckley (KD)	16	8	19	27
Alec Wilkinson (CVT)	14	7	18	25
Jared Marchi (KD)	16	7	16	23
Justin Peers (FG)	11	8	14	22
Jordan Busch (KD)	16	1	21	22
Braden Fuller (BVN)	15	7	13	20
Logan Mostat (CH)	16	11	8	19

Rider Roundup, Round the League stats, Equipment, turn on the red light

Monday 3:30 PM

 After playing and winning four games that the Riders were kinda expected to win (at least by this writer) vs Revelstoke, Golden twice and Grand Forks, the Ghostriders played two games against Creston last weekend.

Coach Mohr was quoted on the radio saying the Creston games would be a sort of "litmus test" for the Riders.... seeing as Creston played very well against the Riders earlier and only Jeff Orser's heroics gave them a win.  Plus the Cats are ahead of them in the standings and play a pretty sound positional game.

Anyway... On Friday the Riders  were down 2-0 going into the third before Mitch Titus from Alex Cheveldave scored to make it 2-1.  Halfway through the period Cole Keebler scored a shorthanded goal from Justin Peers  to tie the game at two taking the game into overtime, thus giving the Riders at least one point. Alec Wilkinson scored the game winner for Creston in the second overtime. The shots were 52-31 for the Ghostriders. Brock Lefebvre got the win in net for Creston, and on Saturday too.

On Saturday the Riders again found themselves down 2-0 in Creston but only Ryan Kennedy from Zach Befus and Justin Peers could score. The shots were 34-26 for Creston. Jeff Orser played both games in net and showed few ill effects after coming back from an injury. Sawyer Ward was the backup goaltender last weekend. 

1/ After last weekend's games Cole Keebler was leading all KIJHL scorers with 15 goals and 10 assists in 12 games.

2/ Although they lost both games, the scoring chances were there and defensively the Riders looked good compared to the start of the season... lots of second effort as well.

3/ On Friday some of the best scoring chances came on the power play... by the defending teams who each scored a PP G but could have had more, go figure, fun to watch... from the stands... wonder what the coaches thought... If I use those words all the Twitter and Blog cops whine.

4/ Mack Differenz, Ryan Kennedy and Tayler Sincennes made some big defensive plays, Coach Mohr says " I can trust those guys against the other team's top lines.

5/ The Riders play my new friends from Chase on Friday, they have a 9-4 record so will be no pushover.

6/ You can meet, play road hockey and dine with the Riders on Saturday All the info is HERE

7/ He's only played 3 games but 17 year old Rider AP goalie Brandon Youngson has the best record with a .954 save %... he's penciled in full time next season for certain.

8/ Twenty year old Spencer Bender missed yet another weekend, he could be a difference maker if he gets healthy, Aidan Wilson is out for a month, them's two speedy guys D hate playing against. Expecting speedster Evan Reid back in vs Chase, but Lane Sim is day to day as is G- Brandon Butler, however, he's been skating.

9/ Im told, cause I wasn't there, that  Kyle Haugo, who has been playing forward lately, was given a misconduct in the third period in Creston... it was a bad penalty, but not by # 6 by # 91 who goaded him into a fight... but wouldn't. It's what Hockey Canada wants and they should be proud.


Round the League

Now I'm no stats guy but below is some stuff you'll find on the KIJHL site, it's nothing like the detailed stuff Josh Lockhart from Kimberley crunches (Click Here for his latest numbers ) on clutch scorers or Summerland's outstanding blog writer Tim Hogg who is dabbling.

Anyway, if I got some things wrong, to bad, I copied as best I could. 
 Here is what I found After the Weekend.....the Kamloops Storm with 25 points and a 12-0-0-1 record were leading the league but Kimberley is right behind with 24, both teams have played 14 games.

Beaver Valley has scored the most goals at 62 Kimberley has 58 Kamloops and Osoyoos sit at 51.

The best plus minus is Kimberley at + 32 Beaver Valley next at +28

Kimberley is on an 8 game win streak and Kamloops has a 7 game streak going.

Power Plays: Kelowna leads the Power Play Goal parade with 17, Kimberley has 16 Fernie, Chase and Osoyoos each have 15.

But Creston has the best PP percent at 28% with 14 goals on 50 chances... but they don't get to practice it much... they only had 50 chances...the lowest in the league.  So...don't take PIM against them... they could get even better with more practice.

Fernie leads the league in Penalty Killing only allowing 3 and killing 56- 94.64 %  Creston in 2nd has allowed 4 while killing 55  92.73%

The Columbia Valley Rockies have had the most PP oppertunities with 97 but only have a 10.31 % chance of scoring, North Oakanagan is next with 93 chances but only a 7.35 % chance of scoring... they could be trouble if they figure that out.

Beaver Valley and Castlegar with 22 and 21 points are in the closest race for first in their division, only a tie last night in Kelowna is keeping the Rebels a point away.

Short Handed Goals - Kamloops  and Summerland each have scored  5 Fernie is next with 4...

Kamloops Kimberley, Castlegar and Beaver Valley have not allowed a short handed goal against.

Shorthanded goals against Princeton has allowed 7 while Creston, North Oak and Sicamous each have allowed 3

Grand Forks has the most PIM at 345 while at the other end of the spectrum... and the standings... is Osoyoos with 127

Kimberley's Jordan Busch with 18 points is the top scoring D man. Castlegar's Nick Headrick is next at 17.

Kimberley's Jason Richter has the most PP goals at 6 Osoyoos' Rainer Glimpel and Grand Forks' Bryson Yee are next with 5

Kimberley's Tyson Brouwer leads all goalies is shutouts with 4 Fernie's AP BrandonYoungson has the best save % at 954... but he's only played 3 games.

Below is the Top Scorers list and the Top Goalies.

A story came out from The Hockey News last week about some  new and better equipment that players will be getting shortly.

By Matt Carlson
Equipment will help players maneuver more naturally and perform better. And despite the reduction in bulk, gear will be more protective to compensate for faster shots and harder impacts. New materials and technologies handed down from the aerospace industry are already propelling the evolution. They’ll be more prominent as the composites and foams that make a Boeing 787 Dreamliner lighter and fuel-efficient land in the sporting goods industry. Full Equipment story

The Goalies will benefit from the new equipment but if they don't cut down on the size of their equipment no one will be turning on the Red Light, for a tutorial about a guy who knows a thing or two about Red Lights click Here 

Meet the Ghostriders

The Roundup, Weekend Fight fans,ref bash, ice queen NCAA fun and Drummed out of the game

The Weekend
The Ghostriders played three games last weekend, they won  7-0 at home vs Grand Forks, 7-2 in Golden, and on Sunday at home vs Golden they had a 7-3 win, the boys scored a total of 21 goals and had three wins on the weekend. 

On Friday at home against Grand Forks the Riders led 1 -0 after one, 4-0 after two and finally 7-0 at the end of the game. D-man Keagan Kingwell had 2 goals and an assist Alex Cheveldave 2 goals and Justin Peers 1 goal and 2 assists. 17 year old AP goalie Brandon Youngson had the shutout in net... that was his second win in two games.

On Saturday night in Golden it was the Rockets who actually got out to a 2-0 lead but in the second the Riders took over scoring six and one in the third for a 7-2 win.
Cole Keebler had 2 goals and an assist and Justin Peers scored a pair as well. Mack Differenz had a goal and 2 assists while D Kevin Pierce finished up with a goal and an assist. Sawyer Ward got his first start in net and first KIJHL win as well.

On Sunday night the Rockets were here in Fernie completing part two of their home and home with the Riders, it was game three for both teams but it was fairly competitive for two teams playing their third games in a row.

In the first the Riders scored a pair of PP goals (Kevin Pierce, Cole Keebler) before the Rockets Jake Gudjonson scored to make it 2-1. Justin Peers scored in the last five minutes for a 3-1 lead at the end of the first.

In the second Cole Keebler scored his second on the night but in the last minute Terix Fischer-Kobes scored two in a row and the second ended with the Riders only up by a goal at  4-3.

In the third the Ghost picked it up and scored three for the win. Justin Peers got his second and 7th on the year and Alex Cheveldave scored for a 6-3 lead before  Keebler had his 3rd into the empty net while shorthanded. Brandon Youngson had the win in net stopping 27 shots.

A few thoughts

1/ On giving Sawyer Ward a start in Golden Coach Craig Mohr said "It was the right thing to do"  "They (meaning both AP goalies Ward and Youngson) helped US out ". Goalie Brandon Butler seems to be a week or so away and Jeff Orser is in the same boat but with a somewhat lesser injury.... I can almost hear Jeff Dubois rubbing his anticipating hands together...

2/ Trevor Broad who missed a few games with injuries and coaching decisions showed us why he was kept on as a rookie this year. On the Riders fourth goal (that turned out to be the game winner) it was Broad's fancy moves on the blue line to get around a couple of guys that created the play that resulted in Keebler's second goal. Broad had 2 assists Sunday, his first two points. He's smooth... and will only get better with a little more confidence.

3/ In Golden Evan Reid was knocked out by Travis Kelly who got a 5 minute charging call... but not a head contact call... the referees seem to be reluctant to call that on  players because of commutative penalties I guess. Anyway Rocket HC Jason Stephens didn't dress Kelly on Sunday even though he was not suspended... probably was a smart thing as a fighting major would have been more than likely.

4/ Fight fans were satiated half way through the third period when Rider forward Ben Shushkovsky took on the oversized (6'5" 220) Mike Main who had been running roughshod on our forwards all night.  Once he got loose Ben got in a couple and one particularly good shot...  winning the fight and a spot on the team... for life

5/ Rider Prue played a game with the Ghostriders before leaving the team because he knew he wouldn't get a top six job here in Fernie, looks like he will get one in Golden where he had a goal and an assist in his first 3 games... both points were against us. I... unlike most, can understand why a player may go for more playing time vs winning.

6/  The big gun on the weekend...was, to no ones surprise, team Captain Cole Keebler with 10 points but Justin Peers is quietly having a great sophomore season with 8 points on the weekend and 17 in eight games. After the weekend Keebler was leading all KIJHL players in scoring with 24 points while Peers was in 8th place.

7/ When a team plays three games in three days the coaches watch and try and juggle who needs rest and who can go all three, so no matter what we think about the scratches, the coaches are with the guys every day and know them... way better than we do.

8/ Spencer Bender who has missed several games with an injury and came back last Friday and scored one goal then sat out the next two games. Spencer told me he was felt good after his game, I'm betting the coaches were saving him for the Creston games this weekend.

9/ Wanna meet the players on October 24th and play some Road Hockey as well Click Here

10/ Keagan Kingwell leads the D in scoring with 7 points in 8 games, he didn't play vs Golden, I suspect he falls into the same category as Mr Bender.

11/ Nice to see 17 year old D Kevin Pierce with 6 pts  in 9 games... Pierce, if you don't know, stays with his Grandparents here in Fernie, his Grandfather, Bob Singleton, was a star player many moons ago and is still playing and is the Captain of  the Tom Uphill Flyers morning hockey team.

12/ Ryan Teslak played all three games, but he's the kind of player who thrives on playing and sure seemed to be salivating  playing the power play against Grand Forks... firing shots off posts and setting guys up etc.

13/ Alex Cheveldave has 4 goals 1 assist in his first 5 games... not bad for a forward who was a defenseman in his other life, he has been on the blue line on the PP lately though.

14/ Judging by the way he moves around the ice it's kinda hard to believe that Ryan Kennedy scored just his first goal last Friday...

15/ Creston is here in Fernie on Friday and the Riders go there on Saturday and that game is a scheduled Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast Game... hopefully the broadcast works this time, they assure me that it will.

Ben Shushkovsky

Round' The League

Nelson's play by play guy was accused of referee bashing by the guys from Beaver Valley Saturday. One of the comments was "Pointing out suspect calls is one thing, full on character assignation is another"  I have no access to the archives so didn't hear it... it's already hard enough to get kids interested in refereeing and we have problems getting refs for some league games.. that won't help... Any thoughts KIJHL?

Kimberley's Tyson Brouwer had 2 shutouts last weekend, he beat Grand Forks 3-0 and Creston 4-0. The Nitro's play here in Fernie for the first time Friday November 6th.. scratch that date on the wife's car door....

Cydnie Rice was the lineswoman Sunday here in Fernie, she did lots of Eddie Mountain Division games in the last few years but is now residing in the Okanagan and doing games there. Cyd was here doing lines after refereeing the Kimberley Grand Forks game the night before. Congrats to the Icequeen (her Twitter handle) on getting the chance to referee, and to run lines in the Jr A BCHL as well.

The KIJHL website is an esports  hosted site and the standings have been haywire with some teams not having all their games listed. That should be corrected shortly... lots of complaints.

NCAA Funtime
Seems I have been finding lots of hypocritical  NCAA stuff lately and this week we have a beauty for you. Some teams have been using escorts to recruit players... Hey Dad, "what's an escort" Dad, Son, it's a car Ford doesn't make any more.

Why the NCAA route is so attractive ? 

Ohio State freshman JaQuan Lyle spoke with an NCAA investigator this week about his recruiting visit to Louisville in June 2013 and confirmed the gist of allegations involving paid escorts during his trip to the school, a source with knowledge of the NCAA's investigation told CBS Sports on Thursday morning.

"He told the truth," the source said.

Read the full story by Garry Parrish here 

NHL Coaches story
Longtime NHL writer Eric Duhatschek interviewed five NHL Coaches. It's a great story on the game that you can read here   or if your lazy just read a couple of the quotes below .

Lindy Ruff There was a time when fear was effective – creating animosity and competition worked. In the past, I’ve sat out players to see their reactions, sometimes key players. I don’t know if we have any “fear” coaches left. You almost have a partnership with the players now

Pete DeBoer  Because players are so much bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled than they’ve ever been in the history of the game, there’s a lot more parity between the top and the bottom of your lineups. Everybody can skate.

Dave Tippett Remember the picture of Patrick Roy in his rookie year in 1986? Then look at the pictures of him when he retired. It was obnoxious, the change. I understand the whole safety issue, I’m all in favour of safety, but if you give them something like a suit of armour, that Kevlar, when everything is tight to their body, then you can make them go back to the era of “a kick save and a beauty.”

Former Ghostrider Jeff Rayman who played here at 16 years old was released from the Spokane Chiefs (WHL) a couple of weeks ago. After being released he skated with the Riders to stay in shape then went to the Jr A Drumheller Dragons last week. But did he make the right choice... both Dragon Coaches were kicked out of their game Saturday and the game was suspended, below is the Twitter feed from their play by play guy Robb Hunter. And here is what GM Brian Curran thought of the whole mess notice how it has nothing to do with coaching

1. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   Now that I think of it. It was the @symer27 fight that ended the game. So congrats to Symer on his first career GWF (game winning fight).

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2. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   How was everyone else's night?

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3. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   Congrats to @symer27 on the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.

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4. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   With 4:26 to go, there was another fight. Both head coaches were ejected leaving Drum without anyone to run the bench. Score was 7-2.

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5. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   I'm told, the ref then told an alternate captain from each team that if there was another fight both head coaches would be tossed.

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6. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  9h9 hours ago

   Drumheller's assistant coach was ejected with 7 minutes left in the 3rd for voicing his displeasure with the official.

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7. Robb Hunter ‏@TheRobbHunter  10h10 hours ago

   Game called in Bonnyville as both Drumheller coaches received ejections and the Dragons didn't have a coach left to run the bench.