Riders lose 5-4 in Double OT

Fernie 4 @ Kimberley 5 /2nd OT

Rider Justin Peers scored two goals (1PP) in the first period but they were sandwiched between James Farmer's PP goal and Matt Davies tying goal.

In the second period Matt Davies scored his second of the night on the power play but just a few minutes later Ty Abbott scored to tie then Aidan Wilson scored the go ahead goal on the power play giving the Riders a 4-3 lead heading into the third.

With just 1:43 left in the game Nitro  Chase Miller scored the game tying goal on the power play.

In the second OT Joe Karpyshyn scored the game winner, his 2nd goal in his first 3 games.

Kimberley outshot Fernie   49-30
and went 3-4 on the power play while the Riders finished 2-7.

Brandon Butler stopped 44 including an OT penalty shot by Nick Ketola in a losing cause.

Cody Campbell stopped 26 of 30 for the Nitro win.

Both Justin Peers and Matt Davies were named as the Players of the Game, they each scored 1 PP and 1 even strength goal.

Attendance 1031

Riders Next Home Game Dec 29 and the Notebook

On Thursday December 29th  the  Kimberley Dynamiters will be here in Fernie and it will be the the sixth game between these two teams. 

Fernie won 3 of the first 4 games but those numbers will change slightly by Thursday as the Riders play in Kimberley Wednesday night.

Kimberley and their two new goalies, Cody's, Campbell and Call will only play one more game here in Fernie after Thursday before the playoffs,   that game will be on Friday January 26th. The Nitro's picked up Nolan Kurylo (98) who has scored 7G 5A in 7 games, he's a player for both Rider players and fans to keep an eye on.

The Ghostriders next game after the Kimberley two game set is in Creston New Year’s Eve and their next home game is Saturday January 7th against Castlegar. The Creston NYE game happens every year but it is not a radio broadcast game... What ? Hoffman has something else to do...

Ghostrider Notebook

The two newest Riders, Brendon Nemes and Keelan Saworski, each scored their first goals against Creston just before the Christmas break.

Matt Rogers broke his knee cap while retrieving a puck December 10th in Castlegar and will miss the rest of the season . We wish him all the best in his recovery and hope he comes back if Jr A doesn't turn out for him.

Rider GM Craig Mohr with 22 guys still has room for one more player, so stay tuned, it will happen ...but it may linger until the January 10th deadline.

Justin Peers, Derek Green, and Brandon Butler were all day to day with injuries before the Christmas break. 

Keagan Kingwell will miss Wednesday's  game in Kimberley because of a 1 game suspension for getting in a fight  in the last 10 minutes of the Creston game... even though Creston's Liam Raycroft was called for instigating the fight... Well thanks to Szuki and Hockey Canada's environmental  "Save the Turtle" campaign you can't even defend yourself if someone attacks you.

Devin Nemes has scored 3 goals for the Riders since coming over from Beaver Valley November 19th and two of them were game winning goals.

Mitch Titus scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal in the last home game, it was his 16th goal of the season.

Fernie’s rookie D-man #2 Derek Green has been picked for the KIJHL Prospects game on January 17th in Kelowna. The game features the best 16 and 17 year old players from both Conferences. 

The Eddie Mountain Conference's Head Coach is Creston’s Jeff Dubois and his assistants who also helped pick the team are Fernie’s Craig Mohr and Grand Forks’ Emery Olauson.

On the other side in the Okanagan Division the Coaches are Osoyoos' Ken Law, Summerland's John DePourcq and 100 Mile's Dale Hladun. 

Longtime KIJHL Coach Brad Fox, who is now Chase's Head Coach was the guy who oversaw the whole process. 

There was some controversy over the selections, some teams thought it was suppose to be like an all-star game with players from all teams, but that was never the case. It was always going to be the best 16-17 year old players period. But the gong show on Twitter was great.

All the players in the Prospects game are listed here

The Eddie Mountain Breakdown Saturday Edition

Creston 7 @ Fernie 4

Liam Plunkett scored 3 and  Julian Benner had 3A as Creston got their league leading 48 point and  third win in a row Saturday night.

Creston had period leads of 3-1 and 5-3 and Pat Osterman stopped 35 of 39 Rider shots in net. Brody Smith's second power play goal in the second period turned out to be the game winner.

Creston was 3-6 Fernie 0-5 on the power play.

The newest Ghostriders, Keelan Saworski (1G 1A) and Brendan Nemes, each scored their first goals and Mitch Titus scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal with 4:33 left in the first. Brandon Youngson stopped 31 in a losing cause.

Andre Pelletier was the Rider's backup goaltender Saturday after  Brandon Butler was hurt in the warmup inGolden Friday night.

Both Keagan Kingwell and CVT's Liam Rycroft were kicked out for fighting at 5:19 of the third but Rycroft was given the instigator so he will miss a game. 

Kimberley is now 8 points ahead of the Riders because...

Nelson 2 @ Kimberley 4

Kimberley stops Nelson's 6 game win streak and now has their own 6 game win streak going after scoring 3 unanswered goals in the last half of the game.
Lucas Purdy had the game winner while Nolan Kurylo and Franco Colapaolo each had 1G 1A. Cody Campbell stopped 31 of 33 for the win.

With the win Kimberley with 46 points are just 2 behind Creston for first place.

A big battle for the final playoff spot went on in Columbia Valley Saturday night where the Rockies skated away with a 5-2 win.

Golden 2 @ Invermere 5

The Rockies were up 4-0 in the third before the Rockets scored two, but it was two little too late and the Rockies scored an EN goal to finish up with a 5-2 W.
Ben Kelsch had the win in net and Pete Mathews had a goal and two assists helping the Rockies who now have 17 points to a 6 point lead with 2 games in hand over the Rockets for the final P/O spot.

Dorian Laganiere-Labranche who played so well vs the Riders Friday was yanked after the first in favour of Owen Sikkes.

The Eddie Mountain Breakdance Friday Edition-Fernie- Kimberley and Creston win Friday

Fernie 3 @ Golden 2 in OT

Devin Nemes scored the OT game winner with 1:11left in the first OT finally beating new Rocket goalie Dorian Laganiere-Labranche  who stopped 17 in the third and 5 in the OT.  

Laganiere-Labranche was also named the Rockets Player of the Game for stoping 43 of 46 shots giving the Rockets a chance to win... and as it turns out, 1 point in the standings.

Ben Sushkovsky and Alex Cheveldave (PP) scored the other Rider goals and Brandon Youngson had the win in net stopping 18 shots .
The Rockets Nic Lush scored both Golden goals.

The win allows the Riders to keep pace in the standings because...

Rockies 3 @ Kimberley 6  

Nolan Kurlo had 2 Goals (1 SH and 1 PP) and 2 assists and Caige Sterzer scored the GW in the second period.
Kimberley out shot the Rockies 51 35 and Cody Call had the win, it was his first game in the Nitro net.

Kimberley has now won 5 in a row but are still 2 behind Creston because...

Grand Forks 1 @ Creston 2

Ron Wilkie had the game winner in the second after Brodie Smith tied the game a minute earlier. All the goals were in the second period. Pat Osterman had the win in net stopping 20 of 21 for Creston's 2nd win in a row.
Anthony Galliart stoped 33 of 35 for GFBB Dylan Haney scored their lone goal.

Creston is here in Fernie Saturday Dec 17 on Teddy Bear Toss night.

Nelson who are on a 6 game win streak and have just tied the Rebels in the standings with 32 points are in Kimberley tonight.

And Golden is in Invermere The Rockets gained another  point last night and are just 4 behind the Rockies who have lost 8 in a row for the final playoff spot.

Riders play Creston Saturday here in Fernie

Saturday night the Ghostriders play the first place Creston Thunder Cats, this is the fifth time these two teams

have played and Creston has won the first four games.

This is also Teddy Bear Toss night as well, toss em after the Riders score their first goal.

Creston lost both games last weekend, 6-4 in Kimberley and 5-1 in Beaver Valley and were on a 3 game losing streak but on Tuesday in Columbia Valley  they won 9-2. Creston has had several players out with injuries lately including all- star goalie Brock Lefebvre who did not play in Invermere Tuesday.

With the win Creston regains first place in the division with 44 points, Kimberley has 42 and Fernie has 36 the Rockies have 15 and Golden 10.

The Riders play Creston twice and Kimberley twice before January first... a great time to make hay...even though it was -27 this AM.

Ghostrider Notebook 

The Ghostriders have to go to Golden Friday, it is a scheduled Drive 99.1 radio broadcast game. Creston meanwhile plays Grand Forks at home Friday. Travel advantage Creston.

The Riders were tied 2-2 with the Rockies last Friday but scored three in the third period for a 5-2 win.

In Castlegar they were down 3-1 at the end of the first, were leading 4-2 at the end of the second, only to be hit with three consecutive penalties in the third where they surrendered 2 power play goals and 2 even strength goals in a 7-5 loss.

The refereeing was infuriating enough that Coach Mohr was tossed out out of the game in the third... but he left without incident, so that was it, no suspension.

Mitch Titus had a hat-trick in Castlegar an assist vs the Rockies and the Coaches named him the Tim Horton’s Player of the Week.
 He leads the team in scoring with 15 goals and 20 assists and is scoring at a 1.3 point per game clip.

Alex Cheveldave scored two goals against the Rockies and had a goal and an assist in Castlegar and has 25 points in 28 games, not bad for a D.

Devin Nemes scored the game winner against the Rockies, it was a beauty, he has 4 points in 6 Rider games and will be playing his 122 KIJHL game Saturday.

Justin Peers and Aidan Wilson are both day to day with injuries but could play this weekend.

Ryan Kennedy scored his 14th vs the Rockies and 15th goal in Castlegar, he now has more goals than he had points last year.

Tayler Sincennes who has a 5 game point streak going, will play his 138th KIJHL game Saturday.

New Rider Keelan Saworski got hit in the Rockies game and missed the third period, but was back in Castlegar where he had a goal disallowed but picked up an assist. That was his first point as a Ghostrider.

Ty Carron was released earlier this week and Brendan Nemes was brought in. Brendan was with the Jr A Calgary Canucks earlier in the year and the 18 year old  forward is Devin Nemes’ younger brother.

The players are off for the Christmas break after Saturday's game and won't play again until December 28th when they play in Kimberley then on Thursday the 29th Kimberley is here in Fernie.

A Kelowna Christmas

So a couple of weeks ago the Kelowna Chiefs were

bragging on their Twitter account that they had over 1000 penalty minutes, by as they said, a lot, a lot.

Well they didn't let us down
...Saturday night as everyone knows is alright for fightin  and  on Saturday Dec 10 North Oak went into Kelowna and shut them out 4-0 and the Chiefs didn't take it well as you can see by clicking here     check out the second period for the hysterics. The Chiefs now lead the league with 1411 PIM and counting...  

Now there is no proof of this... but we heard through the rumour mill they were singing the 12 days of Christmas in the dressing room after the game..... here are the lyrics I was told about by a fan who just caught the end of the song as he was walking by...

On the 12th day of Christmas the Zebra gave to me

 More than a 100 minutes in penalties,

11 sets of stitches, 

10 Dr visits

A countless number of misconducts 

One butt end penalty

A 5 minute head shot

7 game misconducts 

5 fighting majors

A bunch of ruffin penalties

2 instigators

2 more aggressors
 

And five Golden Rings la la la

4 but probably more suspensions

3 concussion spotters

2 game ejections

And some boarding, slashing and roughing pen-al-ties.

la-la la

The Eddie Mountain Breakdown Saturday Edition

Fernie 5 @ Castlegar 7

Castlegar scored 2 power play and 2 even strength goals in the third for the win and had 3 PP goals  on the night.

Seven different Rebels scored and Jason Mailhiot stoped 36 of 41 for the win in net.

Mitch Titus had a big night scoring 3 for the Riders and Alex Cheveldave had a goal and 2 assists in a losing effort. Brandon Butler stopped 30 of 37.

The Riders went 1-5 and the Rebels 3-9 on the PP. Coach Craig Mohr was furious at the refereeing and was ejected in the third.

The Riders lost ground on Kimberley and didn't gain any on Creston because...

Rockies 0 @ Kimberley 4

Four Nitro's scored and Cody Campbell stopped 23 for the shutout. Brandt Bertola had 1 goal and 2A and Kimbo outshot CVR 49-23.
Kimberley is now tied with Creston because...

Creston 1 @ Beaver Valley 5

5 Hawks scored and Tallon Kramer made 36 saves for the win. Nolan Percival had 3 assists and the Hawks now have 42 points tied with Kimberley and Creston... but Osoyoos sneaks ahead with a 7-2 win over Revelstoke giving them 43 points.

Meanwhile Golden put a scare into Nelson but still lost 4-3.  Former 100 Mile house Wrangler Alex Meeker scored the game winner for Nelson who has surprised everyone after trading 9 guys with a 5 game win streak and 30 points, just 2 out of second place.

The Eddie Mountain Break Dance

Rockies 2 @ Riders 5

The Riders scored 3 in the third for the win after Ryan Kennedy tied the game at 2 on the power play late in the second period.

Devin Nemes (1G 1A) scored the game winner five minutes into the third, and it was a beauty, he went one on one with goalie Will McCreight and slipped it through him giving the Riders a 3-2 lead .

Alex Cheveldave scored two from the point and Tayler Sincennes scored into the empty net to put the game away.

Brandon Butler stopped 22 in the Rider net while McCreight stopped 35 of 40.

The win keeps the Riders within striking range of Kimberley who...

Creston 4 @ Kimberley 6

The Nitro's go 3-5 on the PP and Korbyn Chabot's first of two goals was the game winner. Chase Miller had 2G 1A as well and Cody Campbell had the win stopping 25 of 29.
CVT Bryce Sturm had 2G and Paxton Malone scored his second as a Thunder Cat, Pat Osterman took the loss in net.

Golden 1 @ Spokane 2 OT
The Brave's Carter Jones' second goal on the penalty shot was the game winner. JJ Pichette had the win in net. Laganiere- Labranche took the loss.
Shots 33-32 GR

With the point the Rockets are 5 behind the Rockies for the final spot, but the Rockies have 3 games in hand.

Meanwhile Kimberley with 40 points are just 2 behind Creston who play in Beaver Valley tomorrow while Kimberley plays the Rockies at home in Kimbo. 

Golden is in Nelson Saturday, the Leafs have won 4 in a row including a 5-4 win in Castlegar Friday.

Fernie with 2 points are still 4 behind Kimberley. The Riders play  in Castlegar Saturday night and it is a Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast Game.
 

Riders Play Here in Fernie Friday

Friday’s Game is Here in Fernie

The Ghostriders play the Columbia Valley Rockies Friday night at 7:30 in game six of the teams eight game regular season series. The Riders have won 4 of the 5 games so far. The Ghostriders will be collecting any non-perishable food donations at the game. 
Teddy Bear Toss is Dec 17th.

The Rockies only played one game  last week and it was in Kimberley where they lost 4-2. That game was tied 2-2 in the third and the shots were close, so despite their record, they can't be taken lightly.

The Ghostriders defeated Kimberley 5-3 last Friday then in Golden on Saturday they outshot the Rockets 43-22 but ended up with a 4-4 tie. See the last sentence in the last paragraph.

In the Kimberley game the boys were down 3-1 after the second period but completely blew up the Nitro’s with four  kabooms or whatever the **they call them in the third.

Nice job by the Coaches and players to right the ship after the 2nd period. Tristan Downe, Tayler Sincennes, Mitch Titus and Keagan Kingwell scored in the third and Ty Abbott scored the Riders first goal in the second. Brandon Butler had the win in net.

In Golden the Riders fell behind three times but each time they scored to tie the game. The Tim Horton’s Player of the Week Ryan Kennedy tied the game twice and Ty Abbott tied the game late in the third.  Aidan Wilson scored the other goal and Brandon Youngson was in the Rider net.

Ghostrider Notebook

After a slow start rookie Ty Abbott has been hot lately picking up 3 goals and 2 assists in his last three games. Ty is from Sparwood.

Point leader Mitch Titus scored in both Kimberley games and leads the team with 31points.Last year in a season full of injuries, he was the only player who played in all 52 , Ty Carron and Dustin Watt played 51.

D-man Keagan Kingwell had a goal several hits and an assist vs the Nitro’s and was the Player of the Game.

GM Craig Mohr released Joey Stensland last week then brought in forward Keelan Saworski who was playing Jr A in the SJHL in Melford then in Blackfaulds. Keelan will be wearing number 14 and looked pretty good in practice Tuesday night.

Justin Peers is day to day with a friendly fire  injury from the Golden game, he was hit with a Rider shot. 

Nitro goalie Mitch Traichevich had two bad third periods in the last two games here in Fernie, in fact he looked overwhelmed, especially Nov 26th with 1000 screamers in the stands. Kimbo GM Derek Stuart traded him after the last Fernie game saying it was for personal reasons. The full story is here   Cody Call is his replacement but it was  Cody Campbell who got the call in Golden Tuesday and a 4-0 shutout, forward Nolan Kurylo scored 2G helping the Dynamiters to a 4 point lead on the Riders for second place. Also Korbyn Chabot was back in the lineup after a stint in Trail.

The Ghostriders play in Castlegar Saturday and it is a scheduled Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast Game with Josh Hoffman at the Mike. 

Next Saturday is Teddy Bear Toss Night. You can toss em on the ice after the Riders score their first goal.

Round' the League -Leafs Cats pointless reindeer fights with class

Round' the League

Last week the Nelson Leafs bragged about making nine player moves at the deadline. So I checked the KIJHL website and surprise surprise not one was posted like they are suppose to be. Hats off to Golden, Osoyoos, Chase and Creston for posting their deadline player moves. Anyway, that's a pointless argument that I've been crowing about for years and years, pointless cause we all know the KI GM's are just so busy they don't have time to do that for the fans. But that's not why were here today...

The nine moves may have paid off for the Leafs as they have won 3 in a row and one of those  was a 4-2 win against the first place Creston Thunder Cats last weekend.

Now for the fun part... if you remember, back on October 30th Nelson and Creston had a fitting gate night halloween brawl at the end of a 7-1 Nelson loss in Creston   (see the carnage click here) that saw 8 players and both coaches get suspended... and Leaf Head Coach Mario DiBella hasn't forgotten about it so he fired a few shots directly at Creston in a Nelson Star article dated December 3rd. 

 At first DiBella started off with the players and then about reindeer's Dancer and Prancer or something but soon it degenerated into an all out attack on their Coaching Staff. Full Story Here   But the best hi-lights are below.

"Creston may have 20 skaters that all look the same, [but some of our skaters] are singers, some are dancers" 

Next he went after Creston Head Coach Jeff Dubois while  reminiscing about the brawl to Nelson Star writer Tyler Harper.

"They sent out a 20 year old to fight a 17 year old on our team," recalled DiBella. "A staged fight, which was garbage in my opinion. It shows a lack of class and leadership from the Creston coaching staff. We weren't our best that night and I think the players were prepared to come back and show that wasn't the team [Creston] was going to see for the rest of the year."

Not one to shy away from those kind of attacks Creston HC and GM Jeff Dubios, when prompted by the guys here at Rider News, countered with this.

"Full credit to the Nelson players on a well-earned win. They were the better team, plain and simple. But Mario should probably just shut up and keep his thoughts to himself. We're talking about a guy who has the respect of pretty much nobody in our league, so I don't think he's going to be taken seriously anywhere that matters as a spokesman for class and leadership". 

"Second, it's tough to respect someone who spends as much time as he does screaming at kids on the other team during an amateur sporting event. I don't like to tell a guy 40 years older than me how to act, but he's probably better off focusing on winning hockey games seeing as how that hasn't been happening much in his neck of the woods lately. In the meantime, let's leave the focus on the players who deserve the positive attention".

Rider News, Well that's great stuff, if I'm anywhere near Nelson January 7th at the rematch I'm going early. Meanwhile the Nelson Leafs will get a chance to prove a few things this Friday in Castlegar against the red hot Rebels.   And Creston has their own dragons to slay with trips to Kimberley and Beaver Valley this weekend. 

Isn't the internet fun, more to come... I hope

The Eddie Mountain Break Dance Saturday Edition

Fernie 4 @ Golden 4

The Golden Rockets got their first chance to use their new goalie Dorian Laganiere-Labrbranche Saturday night and he didn't disappoint the 240 Rocket fans stopping 39 of 43 shots and helping Golden to their 9th point of the season. He was their Player of the Game as well.

The Rockets were leading for most of the game but every time they got a lead the Riders would tie it up. Ryan Kennedy who was the Riders Player of the Game tied the game at 1 in the first then at 3 in the second and Ty Abbott (1G 1A) got the Riders at least a point when he tied the game at 4 with 3:19 left in the third. Aidan Wilson (1G1A) scored while the Riders were down 3-1 in the second.

Brandon Youngson stopped 18 of 22 in the Rider net.

Nick Lush  scored 2 for Golden and Darion Nordick had 1G 1A

A couple of fights, Kyle Haugo and Tayler Sincennes were both ejected for fighting. And the on line game summary was inputted wrong as usual and  Sincennes DID NOTGET A "Gross Misconduct" .

Fernie was 0-2 and Golden 0-4 on the PP

With just one of a possible 2 points Saturday the Riders are now 2 behind Kimberley because...

Columbia Valley 2 @ Kimberley 4

Kimberley and the Rockies were tied at 2 going into the third but the Nitro's scored a pair in the third for the win, Brandt Bertoia scored the game winner and Devon Langelaar scored the insurance goal shorthanded. 
Adam Anderson had the win in net, his first full game with Kimbo.
The shots were fairly even at 38-26 KD and neither team scored on the power play.

Fernie with 34 and Kimberley with 36 points slink a little closer to Creston with 42 after their game Saturday because...

Creston 2 @ Nelson 4

The Nelson Leafs scored in the first and second and led the Cats all game. Creston's Justin James made it 3-2 on the PP late in the third but Andy Fitzpatrick scored into the empty net to insure a Leaf win. 
Nelson went 1-5 and Creston 2-5 on the power play and the shots were 29-28 CVT.
Billy Gorn got the win in the Nelson net, it was his first game as a Leaf, he played 5 games with the Nitehawks last year.

At the December deadline Creston scored, KIJHL scoring leader, Paxton Malone from Spokane for future considerations, Malone scored his first with Creston on the PP Saturday.

In other news. The Nitehawks 15 game win streak came to an end Saturday when they lost 5-4 at home to Spokane (who just lost their top scorer to Creston). 
Brave goalie JJ Pichette stopped 53 of 57 shots for the win in net and was the Player of the Game. 
Total shots 57-24 BV  In case you were wondering September 30th was the last time BV had lost, 3-2 in Nelson in OT.

The Eddie Mountain Break Dance

Kimberley 3 @ Fernie 5

After a lacklustre first two periods where they were outshot 30- 17 the Riders headed into the third period down 3-1.

Whatever the coaches said to the players after the second it worked and the Riders responded with four goals in the third for the big home ice win.

Tristan Downe started it off with a goal in the first minute then Tayler Sincennes scored his 10th just a few minutes later. The Rider power play kicked in after that and scored two, Mitch Titus and Keagan Kingwell scored the PP goals And Ty Abbott scored the Rider's first goal in the second.

Brandon Butler stopped 37 of 40 Nitro shots and both Mitch Traichevich and Adam Anderson faced 34 shots. Chase Miller with 1G 2A was the KD POG and Keagan Kingwell with a goal several hits and an assist was the Riders POG. Justin Peers chipped in with 3 assists.

With the win the Riders are just 1 point behind Kimberley in the standings... but both are a ways behind....

Castlegar 1 @ Creston 4

The game was tied at 1 after one but then Creston took over scoring 2 in the second and 1 in the third for the win. The Cats stopped the Rebels 9 game win streak as well. 

Brock Lefebvre had the win and Kilcommons and Benner each had 1G 1A. Shots 40-27. CVT also scored on the PP and shorthanded.

Former Thunder Cat Justin Podgorenko hit Jonathan Lee in the head in the first sending Lee to the hospital... but we hear he's OK. Podgorenko got 5 and a game... or more (2?) 

With the win Creston has 42 points, Kimberley 34 and Fernie 33.
Creston is in Nelson, Fernie is in Golden and the Rockies are in Kimberley Saturday.

In other news... the PIM leaders from Kelowna found themselves a dance partner Friday, check out the PIM's in the second period here