Monday, 30 November 2015

The Roundup, wins, POM's text's, late at nite,blue gloved, trades and no controversy (unfortunately)

The Ghostriders went out on the road last week and won 3-0 in Sicamous and 5-3 in Revelstoke.  They are now on a four game win streak and three of the wins have been away from home  bringing their road record up to a nice 9-6 .

Friday in Sicamous Brandon Butler was in net for the 3-0 shutout and Evan Reid with the first goal got the game winner. Tayler Sincennes and Zach Befus scored the other goals.The Eagles don't have a very good record but anytime you can shutout a team on the road it's a good time. That was Brandon's first KIJHL shutout... nice job Brandon. Coach Mohr says "both goalies are on top of their games right now".


On Saturday in Revelstoke the Riders had the lead twice but both times the Grizz managed to tie the game until late in the third when Ryan Kennedy scored the game winner with just :52 seconds left then Zach Befus put the insurance goal into the empty net right after that.  Cole Keebler had the hat-trick, he  scored one in the first and two in the second.  Jeff Orser had the win in net stopping 37 for  his eighth win so far this season.

Rider Roundup

The Fernie Ghostriders and Boston Pizza Player of the Month is Rider "C" Cole Keebler.
Coach Craig Mohr " Cole could be the most dynamic player in the KIJHL, along with his speed and skill his work ethic is off the charts".
For the record Keebler had 7 goals and 8 assists in 8 games in the month of November... and his play is eye candy for the Rider fans.

The Tim Horton's Player of the Week was defensemen  Kyle Haugo.
Craig Mohr " Kyle had one of those weekends where you may not see him on the score sheet, but his play behind his own blue line was outstanding".

The McDonald's Practice Player of the Week was forward  Nolan Lagacy 
Coach Mohr "Nolan has a lot of new systems to learn when you arrive on a new team, but his attention to details on and off the ice are exceptional".

After the Revelstoke game I saw this on my text messages. 

Got the beer !!! ...
And I also had this, but it was from Coach Mohr "A character win tonight, the lads played their buts off ! "

The Grizz are a 500 team and at the time had a 5-2 home record, so the win in Revy was big for the Ghost. And scary for a Grizz coach who in a fit of anger knocked a water bottle off their bench soaking the Rider trainer Heather Lewis, but lucky...he was just out of reach of her threatening blue gloves...
2 big wins on the road and beware of the Blue Fist Lewis!!

Sometimes, late at night, I completely understand Pascal... then I wake up.

It was an amazing week end. Boys plays with great awareness of details. A great wisdom of life. Presence/ Now/ awareness

The Ghostriders, who had scored 29 power play goals and were one of the top teams at doing that, never got even one PPG last weekend... but had eight even strength goals... and still won. 

Justin Peers had 3 assists in Revelstoke for a total of 23 and has had 9 points in his last 4 games.

Aidan Wilson who hadn't played since September 26 got back in the lineup last weekend. The league got a little tougher since then, but he has the speed and skill set on his side.

Injured D Keagan Kingwell is still leading the defence in points with 12 but Kevin Pierce is creeping up on him and now has 11, plus in a season of multiple injuries, he has played in 22 games and would have played even more but went to Pentiction for a weekend. Dustin Watt has played all 26 games as has forward Mitch Titus, they are the only guys to do that, honourable mention to Ty Carron 25 and Keebler, Befus and Burgess with 24.

Next up... Doan Smith and the Rockies this Friday in Invermere. Smith played for the Riders at the end of last season after the Rockies traded him here when they knew they were doomed to miss the playoffs. Part of that deal was he could play where he wanted this season. Smith was in Nynäshamns IF J20-- what ever or where ever that is to start the season but returned home last month.

The Ghostriders play the Castlegar Rebels here in Fernie on Saturday night, they are currently fighting it out with Beaver Valley for first place in the Neil Murdoch Division. The Rebels have one of the best goals against in the league and were a plus 34 after last weekend. This is the second time these teams have played this year, the Riders opened the season in Castlegar and lost 3-2. Both teams have changed dramatically since then. 

Round' the League

Kamloops: Last season the trade of the year was Nitro Tyson Klingspohn getting traded for Summerland's Braden Saretesky who absolutely lit it up for Kimberley.  This year Kamloops picked up Zack Andrusiak from North Oak.  So far in 8 games he's had 11 goals and 7 assists.  AND Storm GM Barry Dewar posted it on the KIJHL website. Thanks Barry !
The Kamloops Storm acquire Zachari Andrusiak from the North Okanagan Knights for defencemen Patrick Nicholson, Andre Piquette and forward Ryland Chernomaz.

December 1st is upon us, all teams have to be down to a total of 25 players and cards. Most teams go to 22-23 players so they can bring in a couple of guys before the January 10th deadline where you have get down to 23 players.

Creston had the dubois' honour of losing to the last place Rockets two weeks ago. In a newspaper article their coach Jeff Dubois said Five players were missing in Sunday’s game — a combination of illness and violations of team rules. 

Whatever happened has been corrected... Creston has righted the ship with a 10-2 home ice win against the first place BV Hawks. The Cats also traded for Brett Witala who has had 3 goals and 3 assists in his first 3 games. AND, like Kamloops, they posted their trade on the KIJHL web site. Thanks Jeff ! 
The Creston Valley Thunder Cats acquire the playing rights of 1997-born forward Brett Witala and future considerations from the Campbell River Storm of the VIJHL in return for 1996-born defenceman Austin Steger. (Cats lost a pretty good D to get an F)

Rider fans can scream at Witala Thursday December 17th right here in Fernie.

Not all teams post their trades, so we have to thank those that do, it would be better if they were just fined, if I were king...

We hear the KIJHL will have something interesting for their fans this week on the KIJHL site. Stay tuned.

Kimberley Blogger Josh Lockhart had this on one of his posts before last weekend's games. Cause I'm not smart enough to explain it... I just copied and pasted it. The full article and how he came to his conclusions can be seen here 

J LockhartThe goal, I believe for any team, would be to have fewer infractions, few PK's and less lengthy penalties.

This took the value of the rank in each of the previous categories, and ordered them by the least points. 

RkTEAMPIM/SHrankTSH/GMrankPIM/GMrankTOTAL
1Kamloops Storm3.0874.58614.12114
1Beaver Valley Nitehawks3.44114.21114.46214
3Sicamous Eagles2.9245.321015.56317
4Spokane Braves2.5616.191815.81423
4Golden Rockets2.9655.381315.92523
6Chase Heat3.3684.91816.52824
7Osoyoos Coyotes3.80174.22316.04626
7Kimberley Dynamiters3.45124.72716.28726
9Revelstoke Grizzlies2.7526.101616.76927
10North Okanagan Knights2.9035.881517.081028
11Fernie Ghostriders4.12194.21117.331131
12Nelson Leafs3.3895.351118.091232
13Creston Valley Thunder Cats4.10184.42418.131335
14100 Mile House Wranglers3.0666.121718.731437
15Castlegar Rebels3.72155.12919.041539
16Summerland Steam3.63135.351119.391640
17Kelowna Chiefs4.94204.52522.321944
18Princeton Posse3.75165.581420.921747
18Columbia Valley Rockies3.3896.562022.151847
20Grand Forks Border Bruins3.69146.261923.072053


Kamloops Storm and the Beaver Valley Nitehawks, the numbers suggest are the most disciplined teams in the league.

Sunday, 22 November 2015

Riders win two on the weekend

The Ghostriders won both of their games last weekend, 3-2 in OT on the road in Kimberley and 4-2 at home against Sicamous. The line of Cole Keebler (5), Zach Befus (6) and Justin Peers (5) was the story for the Riders as they had all but one of the goals and a total of 16 points between them. Befus had the power play OT winner in Kimberley as well . Jeff Orser got the big road  win and Brandon Butler got the win at home against Sicamous. The Riders play in Sicamous then go to Revelstoke next weekend. 

Huge win for the Ghostriders in Kimberley last Friday, and almost as fun as the win was watching all the Twitter idiots and hearing about the fans on hand who were attacking the referee who gave the Riders 2 power plays late in the game including one in the OT  that resulted in the Befus goal. Cause everyone knows the refs always try to influence the outcomes of the games...

We are going out of our way here not to attack the zebra's, I mean referees this year, (see it's hard) and we haven't really went after them very much for the last couple of seasons either. We'll have no league without them and here in the Kootenay's we have a  shortage of referees, actually a serious shortage. So we can just hope they do their best and pickup the majors. Although it sometimes seems to the fans like were in the NHL, we're a junior "B" league... I can assure you that both coaches have questions after every game.

The larger ice in Kimberley seems to suit the Rider skaters, I watched the game on the internet and both teams seemed to have time in each other's end and neither goalie, Jeff Orser or Nitro Tyson Brouwer  was picked as a game star... and the shots ended up virtually even at 34-31 for the Riders. The Riders went 1-4 on the PP, Kimberley 0-1 and both teams had several players out with injuries. Kimberley has gained 3 of a possible 4 points vs Fernie's 2.

With all the injuries, especially to the D, the Ghost needed someone to fill some holes up back there and Dustin Watt (95) is the guy. He is maybe unspectacular, but he is rock solid and now is coming to the attention of Coach Mohr who says Watt "is playing as good as I've seen him play".   And after two years Mohr  has seen him play lots...  Ditto for Dan Burgess and the three 17 year olds Trevor Broad, Kevin Pierce and Kyle Haugo, yeah Haugo who is in his second year is only 17, it just seems like he's been around longer, and starting to play that way too.


Travis Thomsen had missed a few games then played in the Kimberley game but left in the second period and did not play in the Sicamous game. Big time problems on the blueline with Thomsen, Keagan Kingwell and Ryan Teslak out with possible longterm injuries.


The Ghostriders have scored 88 goals and 29 have been on the power play and Zach Befus has 9 , Alex Cheveldave is next with 5, oddly enough, top scorer Cole Keebler (95) only has one so 20 of his goals have come at even strength... can you hear that you Colleges.


The best player without a point for the Riders in the Sicamous game, Nolan Lagace, he can make something out of nothing and is almost as slippery as Keebler. Coach Mohr agrees with that and is trying to figure out the pieces of this puzzle as we speak.


It wasn't pretty but a 4-2 win vs Sicamous was a good win. They had only won 5 games, but the Eagles, as expressed by a couple of GM's in the league, are a better team than their record shows. Those thoughts were also the talk of the 400 coaches at the rink Saturday as well. Brandon Butler had to be very sharp at times in the Eagle game and made a couple of outstanding saves in the second. After the Fernie game the Eagles went to Kimberley and lost 3-2 in Overtime so got 1 point.


Broadcast team photo Dan, Ted, Scottie, Lola and Steve








Thursday, 19 November 2015

Rider Roundup- no controversy- sorry skeptics



Ghostriders Notebook

The Ghostriders Tim Horton’s Player of the Week is first year speed skating centre  Mitch Titus and the McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week is  forward Evan Reid.

 AP Evan Traverse scored his first ever KIJHL goal last Friday against Invermere. A little on the small side but more than willing to go where he has to... hope he gets in a couple more games.

Despite missing time with an injury Cole Keebler was still leading all players in scoring to start the week with 39 points in 29 games.

Forward Evan Reid scored a goal last Friday and has 5 points in his last 5 games, Reid is in his first season as a forward. He played D last year here in Fernie.

Ben Sushkovsky is finished for the season with a broken rib and has left the team, Ben endeared himself to this column when he fought and surprised 6' 5" 220 lb Mike Main from Golden in October . His size and grit will be missed here.


With all the injuries Dan Burgess who started out as a defenceman but then went up front on the wing,and was liking it, has to go back on the blueline for the next couple of weeks. Here we like him up front as well.


The Riders are in Kimberley Friday, the Nitro's have actually lost a couple of games lately, Castlegar started it all with a 3-1 thirteen game  streak breaking win in Kimbo then Creston got board a 5-2 win at home last Saturday.

Trevor Broad will be in the lineup this week after serving a 1 game suspension for a fight in the Rockies game. I couldn't see it from where I was sitting but one of the Rockies speared him on the way to the bench, so that's why he started swinging in that game... we kinda like that.

Just reading that Chad Allen was fired as the Calgary Mustangs Head Coach, he got his start with the aforementioned Rockies several seasons ago, yeah I know you say who cares,... but I find this stuff interestin...It's also where Josh McCulloch is playing, Josh played here last season scoring 25 goals and 36 points  in 26 games before leaving for cowtown.

Kamloops looked pretty good when they were here in Fernie, they are just a game breaker away from first overall...

The Riders have 26 PP goals, (BV and Kelowna have 27)  and Zach Befus has 7 of them, the 19 year old has been a real good player for the Riders since he came here.

Saturday's Game

The Ghostriders play Sicamous here in Fernie on Saturday and it’s part one of a home and home with the Eagles. They play in Sicamous next Friday and in Revelstoke next Saturday, both games are scheduled Drive 99.1 radio broadcast games.

The Eagles played two games last week and in their first game  they had the dubious honour of being the first team to lose to the Golden Rockets  and it was a 6-1loss at home in Sicamous. If it would have been Creston, would I have said they had the Jeff dubious honour ? 

The Rockets had some extra motivation in that game as the Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Ty Davidson was the Head Coach and GM of the Rockets for the last five years. Safe to say many of Ty’s former players wanted to play well in front of him. Anyway the Eagles got back on track the next night with a 3-2 win against former Rider Coach Dale Hladun who is the head guy in 100 Mile House now.

The Ghostriders lost both games last weekend, 4-2 to Invermere and 4-0 to Kamloops. Several players are out of the lineup right now with injuries and a few who are in the lineup are playing hurt. Here is the day to day list of players who may or may not play Saturday. #4 Keagan Kingwell, #8 Ryan Teslak, #5 Travis Thomsen, #27 Mack Differenz, #13 Ryan Kennedy, #18 Spencer Bender, #25 Cole Keebler and # 22 Aidan Wilson. 

Saturday, 14 November 2015

Riders lose 4-2 to the Rockies

Lucky Friday the 13th wasn't so lucky for the Ghostriders who lost a 4-2 (1 EN Goal) decision to the Columbia Valley Rockies who are now 4-0 vs the Riders and on a 4 game win streak.  They are also tied with Fernie in the standings .

The Riders still have 2 games in hand but with the number of injuries they have they could end up in fourth before they heal up.

Lots of shots and Fernie's Jeff Orser  and Rockies Connor McKay were both called upon to make some big saves but neither was a game star and many of the shots were from the outside. The teams took turns in each other's end but found it hard to get the great chances on a regular basis.

Besides the injuries listed below, the difference was size, the Riders were finishing their checks regularly but it didn't seem to phase the larger Rockies. The Rockies came to play and weren't particularlly chippy and weren't getting involved in any fights either. In the third the Riders Trevor Broad tried to start a fight after he was bumped on a line change starting a scrum that resulted in a 5 minute PP for the Rockies with just 8:54 left in the game and a 3-1 lead.

The Riders killed the penalty then speedy AP Evan Traverse scored his first ever goal with 3:17 left. Evan Reid had the assist and also scored the first goal. Reid, who was a D man last season was one of the bright spots for the Ghost up front with a goal and an assist and 3 goals and 2 assists in his last four games. 

The Riders had some chances with their net empty  but Mike Cardinal put one in with :09 left on the clock. Harrison Davies with a goal and an assist had the game winner.

The Riders were without D men Travis Thomsen and Ryan Teslak then Keagan Kingwell got hurt in the second and didn't play in the third. A devastating blow with these guys out and likely Trevor Broad tonight as well for the fight in the last ten minutes. As for the forwards Aidan Wilson, Mack Differenz, Spencer Bender and Cole Keebler were also out and that probably hurt the PP which is one of the highest scoring ones in the league.
Newcomer Nolan Lagace looks better every shift and when the team gets healthy, if they ever do, he will really be a bonus.

Tonight it's the Kamloops Storm here in Fernie, they lost 4-2 as well last night in Kimberley  with an EN goal too. The Storm, who play a very defensive game outshot the Dynamiters 27-17 last night but found Tyson Brouwer just as hard to solve as he was in the KI final last year against the Storm. 
AP Evan Traverse



team logoteam logo
Columbia Valley Rockies@Fernie Ghostriders
4
2
SCORING123TOTAL
Columbia Valley Rockies1034
Fernie Ghostriders1012
SHOTS123TOTAL
Columbia Valley Rockies9111434
Fernie Ghostriders1191838
POWER PLAYS
Columbia Valley Rockies1 for 4 (25.0%)
Fernie Ghostriders0 for 2 (00.0%)
GAME DETAILS
GAME DATENov. 13, 2015
LOCATIONFernie Memorial Arena 
VENUE
START TIME7:30PM
REFEREE 1Monty Taylor
REFEREE 2-
LINESMAN 1Will Casper
LINESMAN 2Travis Baher
SCOREKEEPERMurray Brockmeyer
ATTENDANCE381
STARS OF THE GAME
 HOME STAR AWAY STAR
Fernie Ghostriders
Evan Reid
Columbia Valley Rockies
Micheal Cardinal
SCORING SUMMARY
PERIOD 1
1-0 Fernie Ghostriders at 14:00 Evan Reid from  Tayler Sincennes 
1-1 Columbia Valley Rockies at 12:04 (PP) Colton Sandboe from  Donoven Quintin and Micheal Cardinal 
PERIOD 2
No Scoring
PERIOD 3
2-1 Columbia Valley Rockies at 14:25 Zachary Ross from  Harrison Davies 
3-1 Columbia Valley Rockies at 7:14 Harrison Davies from  Nigel Swab and Colton Sandboe 
3-2 Fernie Ghostriders at 3:17 Evan Traverse from  Evan Reid 
4-2 Columbia Valley Rockies at 0:09 (EN)Micheal Cardinal (unassisted)
PENALTY SUMMARY
PERIOD 1
Fernie Ghostriders at 13:04 - Alex Cheveldave for Goaltender interference (2 Min.)
PERIOD 2
Columbia Valley Rockies at 17:11 - Liam Thomas for Roughing (2 Min.)
Columbia Valley Rockies at 10:35 - Donoven Quintin for Cross-checking (2 Min.)
Fernie Ghostriders at 3:15 - Justin Peers for High-sticking (4 Min.)
PERIOD 3
Fernie Ghostriders at 8:54 - Trevor Broad for Fighting (5 Min.)
Columbia Valley Rockies at 8:54 - Donoven Quintin for Roughing After The Whistle (2 Min.)
Columbia Valley Rockies at 8:54 - Micheal Cardinal for Roughing After The Whistle (2 Min.)
Fernie Ghostriders at 8:54 - Ty Carron for Roughing After The Whistle (2 Min.)
Fernie Ghostriders at 8:54 - Trevor Broad for Instigator (2 Min.)
Columbia Valley Rockies at 8:54 - Donoven Quintin for Game Misconduct 
Fernie Ghostriders at 8:54 - Trevor Broad for Game Misconduct 
Fernie Ghostriders at :09 - Alex Cheveldave for Roughing (2 Min.)
COLUMBIA VALLEY ROCKIES PLAYER STATS
#PlayerGAPTS+/-SHPIM
3Ty Duncan 000E00
4Harrison Davies 112E00
5Kobe Eagletail 000E00
9Kolten Nelson 000E00
11Malcolm Fenelon 000E00
12Nigel Swab 011E00
13Colton Robb 000E00
14Colton Sandboe 112E00
15Will Reynish 000E00
16Ryan St.Jean 000E00
18Donoven Quintin 011E04
19Quinn Sobus 000E00
20Zachary Ross 101E00
21Micheal Cardinal 112E02
22Luke Bellerose 000E00
23Nolan Menard 000E00
24Davin Burton 000E00
26Liam Thomas 000E02
COLUMBIA VALLEY ROCKIES GOALIE STATS
#PlayerMIN.SHSV
1Connor McKay (W)60:003836
30Giovanni Sambrielaz (Backup)0:0000
FERNIE GHOSTRIDERS PLAYER STATS
#PlayerGAPTS+/-SHPIM
3Kevin Pierce 000E00
4Keagan Kingwell 000E00
6Kyle Haugo 000E00
7Dan Burgess 000E00
9Nolan Lagace 000E00
10Evan Reid 112E00
12Brandon Breithaupt 000E00
13Ryan Kennedy 000E00
14Zach Befus 000E00
15Ty Carron 000E02
17Mitch Titus 000E00
20Trevor Broad 000E07
21Justin Peers 000E04
22Evan Traverse 101E00
23Alex Cheveldave 000E04
24Dustin Watt 000E00
26Tayler Sincennes 011E00
28Lane Sim 000E00
FERNIE GHOSTRIDERS GOALIE STATS
#PlayerMIN.SHSV
1Jeff Orser (L)58:203330
30Brandon Butler (Backup) 0:0000