Saturday 26 December 2015

Riders play Kimberley Tuesday here in Fernie, hair raising fun and a card shark



Tuesday's Game
The Ghostriders play the Kimberley Dynamiters on Tuesday, they are in Kimberley Monday so this will be the fourth time these two teams have played this season. Kimberley won the first game 4-3 and Fernie won the second game 3-2 in OT, both teams won on the road. They will play each other four more times in February.

The Dynamiters entered the Christmas break in first place in our division and were first overall in the KIJHL with 55 points. Because Golden has only won four games the Dynamiters have already clinched a playoff spot.

Before the break Kimberley played two games, they lost 5-2 in Creston and won 8-0 against Golden. Their top scorers are Jason Richter, Jared Marchi, Eric Buckley and D-man Jordan Busch. Tyson Brouwer is their #1 goalie with a 20-4-0-1 record. Jerry Bancks is the Head Coach and Mike Reid is their GM.

The Ghostriders played two games just before the Christmas break, they won 7-4 when Creston was here but lost 6-2 when Beaver Valley (who are a first place team and look like it) visited us on December 19th.

More before the Christmas Break
Despite missing several games with an injury Cole Keebler was still in third place in KIJHL scoring with 48 points and was in second place in goal scoring with 24. Kimberley’s Jason Richter has scored one more goal and leads the KIJHL with 25. Keebler was leading the KI with 4 shorthanded goals.

The Ghostriders with an 8-1-0-1 record in their last 10 games are tied with Creston at 41 points.

AP Dalton Bouvier scored his first of the year in the Creston game.

Justin Peers had 2 goals and an assist in the BV and Creston games. Tells me something when a player scores against the better teams.

As we said in an earlier post, Nolan Lagace was too good not to be scoring... he has had 5 points in his last 3 games

Mitch Titus (97) had at least a point in his last 6 games.

Colton Dawson had 8 points in 21 games with Beaver Valley... in 4 games with the Riders Dawson has 6 points, think he was surprised...
How quick was Sara Mouton's trigger finger catching 18 flicking his head back

Zach Befus scored 10 power play goals and was in second place in power play goals scored. Kimberley’s Richter also has 10 and Creston’s Carson Cartwright, who will be here in Fernie January 2nd, has 11.

Injuries like fleas on a rat still plague the Riders, Cole Keebler, Ryan Teslak, Mack Differenz, and Dan Burgess are all listed as day to day with injuries. Differenz is unlikely, the others are possible.

Round the League

The Ghostriders play in Creston for the Cat's annual New Year's Eve Game then return to Fernie for the rematch January 2nd. This game is not a Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast Game... What... Howie don't want to spend New Year's Eve on the bus.. Monday's game in Kimberley is a broadcast game and Howie will be doing the play by play with the one and only Gerry Pang on hand as the colour commentator.

As mentioned earlier, Kimberley has clinched because of Golden's record and now Beaver Valley has the "C" word in front of their name as well because of Spokane's record. Osoyoos via Princeton  should be next, but Summerland may have something to say about that when they play a home and home with the Coyotes.  Kamloops via Sicamous' record are next in line but they have to wait as they are off till Jan 8th.

Card Shark
The Nelson Leafs executive  who were voted (by me) as the most lenient of all KIJHL bosses last season released HC & GM  David McLellan just before the break... or so they say... McLellan, (you can read it here), says he quit... but not before he spent a pile of cash then got the Leafs a $5000 fine for tampering . (For the uninitiated, that means he was trying to steal carded players from another team), you can't even phone them or contact them at all.

 Anyway... Carded was a concept never really embraced  by the GM, last season the Leafs  lost  points in the standings two different times for using un-carded players and McLellan was suspended for several games as well. 

On top of not learning after the first infraction, with all the lost points, the Leafs, who were in contention for second place and a home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, finished in fourth and lost to Beaver Valley in five. A second place finish would have given them home ice advantage and a date with the possibly more favourable Rebels along with 1 more gate worth a few more thousand... and still the Leafs stuck with him again this year.  Here is Nelson Leaf President  John Dooley talking about tampering, money and McLellan

The Leafs new Head Coach and General Manager is a local,  Mario DiBella, you can read that press release here


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