Riders win 3 in a row and a few other things

The Ghostriders won both of their games last weekend and have now won 3 in a row. They won 5-2 here in Fernie against Nelson and 4-1 in Golden. And a good thing they won as the Rockies also won both of their games, 5-2 in Kimberley and 5-4 in Creston. The Rockies are a much improved team this season getting wins in them barns...They are just 4 points behind the Riders and the Riders are just 1 point behind Creston for second place with 12 games and 24 points still up for grabs.


 The win at home came with the $ price tag of Zach Befus who had 6 points in his last 3 games but was injured when he tried to make a hit near the penalty box area in the Nelson game, he played the next night in Golden scoring a goal but may miss this weekend's games.

The win in Golden was not on special either and the Riders paid full price losing Cole Keebler who was injured on an uncalled hit by Sean Ripley that so infuriated Coach Mohr that he got two games for abuse of officials. A charge that he denies saying... I know how to abuse officials and that was nothing.

I don't know if that's good or bad but I do know, and have said before, the referees can't see everything and the best we can hope for is they get most of the calls but get all of the majors that hurt players.

So the Riders go into Spokane Friday then on to Grand Forks Saturday then home to Columbia Valley next Friday January 29th. Grand Forks will be interesting as they are neck and neck with Nelson for third place so will be ready for a battle Saturday. For the record GF is in Kelowna Friday and both Rider games are Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast Games.

Evan Reid was named as the Riders Player of the Week for last weekend. He played hard and made a couple of nice passes resulting in two goals in the Nelson game. Mack Differenz was named as the Practice Player of the Week as well. Mack looked good in his first games back from injury, he was wearing a cage after losing some teeth in practice last week... just in case you were wondering.  Hopefully he is healthy for the rest of the season now.

We're happy to see Coleton Dawson back for the weekend after serving his suspension, things can get hairy on the road  and he's a good one to have in the lineup.

The Rider power play was on display in Golden with three goals, but it has been sputtering lately, they were # one in the KIJHL  for a while but have slipped  to third with 44 goals, BV leads with 53.

The Riders are second in shorthanded goals with 9, Cole Keebler has 5, Evan Reid, Tayler Sincennes, Ryan Kennedy and Ty Carron each have one. Summerland with 11 leads all teams. The Riders have allowed 6 shorthanded goals as well, only Castlegar and Kimberley have yet to surrender a shorthanded goal.

I hear scouts from three Colleges are set to watch the Riders play in Spokane. They had a keen interest in Cole Keebler for one but will be there watching the rest of the guys. Rider fans should remember  all-star goalie Jason Greenwell ,  he played 217 KIJHL games and won a Championship with the Riders in the 2007-08 season. Jason is now the Head Coach of the BCIHL's  Eastern Washington Eagles and he is very interested in Jeff Orser, so the betting is he will get the start in Spokane.

As long as were talking about College's, Creston's Head Coach and General Manager Jeff Dubois was recently picked for the 2006-2016 BCIHL All Decade Team as a builder. The players and builders list is here    Dubois won the BCIHL Championship twice in a row with Selkirk before taking the job in Creston two years ago. Glad to see a "friend of the blog" get recognized.

Rider's new jerseys hanging in the "Room"

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