Friday Night’s Game
The Ghostriders play the Columbia Valley Rockies on Friday January 8th here in Fernie. This will be the sixth time this year these two teams have played and so far the Rockies lead the eight game series four games to one. The Rockies will play the last two games of the regular season series here in Fernie on January 29th and February 12th. The last time these two teams played was Dec 4th in Invermere, the Riders Jeff Orser shutout the Rockies 1-0, Ryan Kennedy scored the only goal.
The Ghostriders have caught up to the Rockies in games played in the last couple of weeks and with just 4 points separating the teams Friday's game is important for the Riders... and for the Rockies and for that matter Creston who lost 6-1 in Kimbo Tuesday and are not immune to a fourth place finish. Credit out to that Haase (96) kid with 4G 1A in that game.
As you can see above, Fernie, Kimberley and Creston have all clinched playoff spots, the Rockies will clinch shortly due to Golden’s terrible 4-30-1-2 record.The fourth place team will play Kimberley in the first round of the KIJHL playoffs starting somewhere around February 23rd- March 2nd.
The Riders have won and lost close games against both Kimberley and Creston so who do you want... There are still 16 more games and 32 points up for grabs so anything is possible including a first round matchup against the Rockies.
The Rockies went 5-3-0-2 in their last 10 games and their top scorer is Michale Cardinal with 23 goals and 24 assists, their Head Coach is Wade Dubielewicz and Ross Bidinger is the GM.
The Rockies also have former Rider Doan Smith back in the lineup. Smith was traded here last season when the Rockies were essentially out of the playoffs giving him a chance to play in the post season. Unfortunately for Smith he was injured before the playoffs and only got to play the last four games when what he really needed a few more games to get up to his full potential again. Anyway, as part of the deal Smith was allowed to return to the Rockies this season if he wanted to. Read more here
The next big day for all players and teams is January 10th when everyone has to be down to 23 players and cards. If you keep a card you can sign any player who is unsigned (was cut at the deadline) until Feb 10th. Sometimes that also happens with injured players who were released pre Jan 10th.
The Rockies also have former Rider Doan Smith back in the lineup. Smith was traded here last season when the Rockies were essentially out of the playoffs giving him a chance to play in the post season. Unfortunately for Smith he was injured before the playoffs and only got to play the last four games when what he really needed a few more games to get up to his full potential again. Anyway, as part of the deal Smith was allowed to return to the Rockies this season if he wanted to. Read more here
The next big day for all players and teams is January 10th when everyone has to be down to 23 players and cards. If you keep a card you can sign any player who is unsigned (was cut at the deadline) until Feb 10th. Sometimes that also happens with injured players who were released pre Jan 10th.
The Ghostriders last two games were on New Year’s Eve in Creston and Jan 2nd here in Fernie. On NYE the Riders came back from a 3-0 deficit when Mitch Titus, Dustin Watt and Aidan Wilson scored in the third to tie the game for a point, but they lost 4-3 in the OT. Brandon Butler was in net.
On January 2nd the Riders played Creston here in Fernie in another close game that saw the boys down 2-1 before Creston scored into the empty net.Justin Peers scored the lone goal and Jeff Orser was in net. The Riders have a 5-3-0-2 record in their last 10 games.
The Ghostriders are in Golden Saturday and it is a scheduled Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast game.
Next Friday we see the new look Nelson Leafs who just finished revamping their Coaching staff and brought in Mario DiBella to run their team... Interestingly, the new look Leafs are now friends with Creston GM Jeff Dubois after he helped them move a player to the Island. Now that it's out there in public... it was Dubois who reported the Leafs for using ineligible players last season costing them a good playoff spot and several points in the standings You can read that here - near the end of the story
But what you won't read... but you can if you can read between the lines... is that if the former Leaf HC Dave McLellan was still in charge... that last story about helping the Leafs would never have happened.
The Leafs are now undergoing some sort of a healing process... you can read that story here and also learn about hot knife'n... read more here
But what you won't read... but you can if you can read between the lines... is that if the former Leaf HC Dave McLellan was still in charge... that last story about helping the Leafs would never have happened.
The Leafs are now undergoing some sort of a healing process... you can read that story here and also learn about hot knife'n... read more here
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