Rider update Dec 20th

The Ghostriders play the Creston Valley Thunder Cats Friday in Sparwood. 

Creston is in second place with 39 points and Friday’s game is their last game until New Year’s Eve when they host the Ghostriders for their annual New Year’s Eve game in Creston. 

Creston lost 2-0 in Kimberley and won 7-1 against Golden last weekend. They also play in Castlegar, who are on a 10 game win streak tonight.

The Ghostriders lost 7-2 in Creston then with 14 skaters they won 5-4 in Golden last Saturday. Grayson Neufeld had 2 goals and an assist while Ethan Jang, Devyn Stuart (1G2A) and Ryan Partaker with the game winner each had a goal. Partaker and Mitch Titus scored the goals in Creston. 

Geoff Drought had the win in net as well... sorry I was late with that Geoff

Ghostrider Notebook.

After a 6 point weekend two weeks ago Brendan Nemes got hurt last week and now 2/3 of the first line in out until after Christmas.

 D-Man Kyle Haugo broke his elbow and it requires surgery so he is finished for the season. Good luck in surgery Kyle.

Matt Rogers, Shaun Pierce, Derek Green, Cory Caldwell, Greg Susinski and the flu bug are all questionable for Friday’s game.

GM Craig Mohr brought in D- Matt Cooper from Castlegar and F-Ben Kemp from Grand Forks last week. With all the injuries there are some holes to fill.

The coaches hate a short lineup... but the players who don’t usually get a lot of ice think differently...

We hear there is some push back from the KIJHL teams regarding the full face mask ruling for next season. But I don’t think Barry Putthefacemasksona'chenko (is that really how you spell it) will waver.

Come on Hockey Canada, either veto it or make everyone across the country, including Jr A   do it... and not the WHL cause we know the CHL would  tell you where to go and which orfice to use to get there.

The next Rider action after Christmas is December 28th in Kimberley, it is a radio broadcast game with Josh Hoffman at the mike and then on December 29th Kimberley is here in Sparwood. 

In other news... 

Quesnel has re-submitted their bid for a team that includes some sort of hotel subsidy to help out visiting teams. That would be a vote enticing incentive for the Okanagan / Shushwap teams who have been crying poverty for years...with probably good reason, I don’t think they ever get 7-8 hundred fans out.

 According to this story the Quesnel bid could be approved by January 14th...or not. They say they already have crowds bigger than the other teams in the league... believe me, they will end up a big rich powerful team and will be able to out-recruit those “other teams” . 

If I was 100 Mile I'd be horrified and if I was Williams Lake I’d be rubbing my  hands together like a ghoul at a graveyard. And if I had my way... two teams would move there instead of expansion... but then the KI teams won’t get the expansion $... go figure what will happen.

And way to go Izzy Palumbo, she is the 15 year old goaltender for the Revelstoke Midget team who just became an affiliate goalie for the Golden Rockets.  That’s how Shannon Szabados got her start, playing Jr, keep on slugging it out Izzy.

Happy solstice Thursday AM at about 9:20 (it’s the shortest day of the year you cretins )

Merry Christmas to all from the Ghostrider players, coaches and board members .

Around the Conference

Around the Conference (As always click the underlined words for the link to the game sheets.)

In Golden the shorthanded Ghostriders built up a 5-1 lead after two periods then hung on for a 5-4 win. Former Rocket RyanPartaker had the eventual game winer.

In Nelson the second place Castlegar  Rebels’ Dallas Goodwin scored in OT for a 2-1 win and Tanner Douglas had the W in net. It was the Rebels 9th W in  a row.
Lots of misconducts and a match with :27 seconds left in the third, the VP’s will be busy today and the Rebs are now just 3 behind the NL with a game in hand.

In Beaver Valley, Grand Forks scored 2 in the second and 2 in the third for a big road win against a short benched Hawks team. Rilee Poffenroth had 2 in the second for the GFBB.

In Columbia Valley the Dynamiters scored 3 PPG for a 4-1 win, it was their 6th in a row and Cody Campbell who now has a 15-5- 1 tie and 3 SO’s record gets the win .

In your face mask

So last week Barry Petrachenko and his buddies at BC Hockey announced that full cages will be mandatory for all Jr B players next season. Read the press release here

This was no surprise to the guys here at Rider News, and here's why. Last August the Peninsula Panthers of the VIJHL decided that they were going make their players wear full cages this season. 

Hey any team can make that call if they want to. But when the Panthers made that announcement they did it while holding hands with guys from the BC Hockey money trough who were not about to miss a chance to grandstand a little hockey safety with some Panthers who you would think wanted out of their cages.. or something like that.  

So the writing was on the wall as far as we were concerned.

Another conspiracy theory also comes to mind after seeing BC Hockey issue last summer’s Alberta prospects camp ban.

I never understood why BC Hockey would suck-hole  to Hockey Alberta and agree to ban all  BC Jr B teams from having camps in Alberta like they did last summer. Why would you purposely try and hobble your province's teams ? 

 Well now with the face shields ruling many of the coaches at the Jr B level fear they will be at a disadvantage when recruiting next year, and some good players may want to play where the visor still rules. So is that all part of the Petrachenko "keep the Albertans in Alberta" and keep our BC Hockey jobs too, master plan.

Also on Twitter, a valuable verifiable news source, I see some guys speculating that the private owners on the coast will still charge the same pay to play rate while at the same time they save like “Scrooge” (well it’s Christmas time you guys) on the insurance. A win win for probably most owners.

And finally... Hockey Canada where are you !
Isn’t it a Hockey Canada deal to make the face shield rule, then make it across the country, not just some experimental fish farm venture like we have now.  

It’s time to eliminate the Provincial borders for hockey players and booze and all the other fun stuff and let HC take over... they already started the process a few years ago when they got rid of the import rule for out of province players... Canadians are Canadians unless you get paid to govern provincially ? ... finish it off HC.

Just the drivel tonight

The KIJHL is ruled by the Governors and not the President, the Governors usually work with the coaches and even have a hand in hiring them, so it's no wonder only the players show up on the KIJHL's discipline and transaction pages and not the coaches ... but they should be listed.

If you go to the two other BC Jr B leagues websites, (the VIJHL and PIJHL ) and look at their team stats you will see some players with an x beside their names. They are the guys who were at one time carded but were either traded or cut from the roster. It's great, you can easily see who has used a lot of cards and you can see if a GM has made a mistake when they moved a guy who is having a great season on another team. The KIJHL doesn't have  that feature ... see above.

The Golden Rockets lost 16-1 to Creston last Saturday. They have also traded a few players or are having a fire sale, whatever, it's not good for the league or the players, we need that fifth franchise in the Eddie Mountain Division.

The Riders got Ryan Partaker from Golden for what they call a PDF, player development fee.  Partaker has been good in my eyes, he finishes checks, has chipped in with a couple of goals, (4 points in 4 games) and is big enough to battle in the corners. 


Last Saturday Nelson and Castlegar went at it pretty good according to this story  and Nelson had one with Golden a few weeks ago as well, meanwhile  Creston and Kimberley chipped in with a few suspensions of their own a few games ago. This always seems to happen around Christmas time. Below is a KIJHL  Vice President (in charge of suspensions)  playing Scrabble with those players.



The KIJHL played two games in Quesnel in mid November, 100 Mile and North Okanagan each played Kamloops.The attendance was 930 and 1110.  Kamloops owner Barry Dewar has been pushing for expansion to Quesnell and Williams Lake for the past few years. They will be powerful teams when he eventually gets his way.

A nice commemorative now on the Ghostrider jerseys.

Saturday night in the division

Grand Forks 3 @ Fernie 2

In Sparwood newcomer Zane Avery's second goal of the game  in the second period was the eventual game winner. 
The Riders Brendan Nemes made it a 3-2 game mid third but Fernie couldn't beat Ross King to tie it up..
Broc Merkl was in net for the Riders and the shots were 39-30 Fernie. 

Columbia Valley 2 @ Kimberley 5

In Kimberley Bryce Mcdonald scored a pair of goals including the GW plus an assist and Brandt Bertoia had 3 A and the Nitro's get their 19th win on the year. Cody Campbell had the W in net. 

Creston 16 @ Golden 1

Yes this happened in Golden,Justin James had 8, Ron Wilkie 6 and Jack McArdle 5 points as the Cats claw the Rockets to death... hopefully not a real death... the league needs the Rockets.

Friday night in the division

Fernie 2 @ Kimberley 3

In Kimberley Cam Russell's goal in the second period turned out to be the game winner.
The shots were 43-45 for Kimberley and both goalies, Cody Campbell (KD) and Broc Merkl (FGR) were the players of the game. 
Both teams were shorthanded, Kimberley via suspensions and  Fernie because of injuries.  676 fans were at the game. 

Grand Forks 2 @ Columbia Valley 3 

In Invermere the Rockies scored 3 third period goals and Hunter Beckett had the game winner late in the period. 
The Bruins Trey Mason scored both GFBB goals.