Kimberley and Invermere win Saturday

Fernie 4 @ Kimberley 5

In Kimberley, Cooper Page (1G 2A) scored late in the second period to break a 4-4 tie and the Nitros hung on for the 5-4 win.
Cody Campbell had the win in net, it was Kimberley’s 31st win and 64th (league leading) point.
Att 703 and both teams scored 2 PP G.
Shots 43-33 Kimberley

Creston 2 @ Columbia Valley 4

In Invermere, Creston scored two in the first then the Rockies got one in the second and three in the 3rd for a big 4-2 win breaking Creston’s 9 game win streak.

Mike Dyck had the game winner, Creston had 2 PP goals the Rockies 1 and Levi Mitchell stoped 29 of 32 shots for the win.
Shots 33-30 Creston. KIJHL top scorers from Creston Liam Plunkett and Ron Wilkie were limited to 1A.

In other games of note

Nelson on the road defeated Grand Forks 3-1keeping them in first place with 61 points, 4 up on Castlegar.

Chase defeated 100 Mile 10-9 in 100 Mile. 
Chase's Mike Fidanza and 100’s Fraser Dodd each had 5 points and the shots were 38-47 CH

Revelstoke defeats Kamloops 6-1 in Kamloops, Cody Flann had 4 points and the Grizz now have 4 W in a row and  61 pts.

Osoyoos won 9-1 vs Sicamous and 9 different Coyotes scored for their 60th point, 10 up on Summerland.

What was I thinking

Riders win and lots of drivel

After losing 6-2 to the Rockies in Invermere last Tuesday the Riders bounced back with a 5-4 double overtime win on Friday night in Sparwood.

The Riders and Rockies were tied up at 1-1 at the end of the first period Mitch Titus who finished with 1G 1A  and Devin Burton (PP) scored the goals.

  Five minutes into the second  Chase Hawkins and Ryan Skytt had the Rockies up 3-1.

At 13:10 Brant Mack (former Nitro) scored his first as a Ghostrider on a breakaway then Jordan Kromm tied the game at three.  After that Dylan Defosse scored a PP goal that gave the Riders a 4-3 lead going into the third.

In the third Mike Dyck scored the tying goal with .01 seconds left on the clock on the PP. 

The game went to OT and in the second OT  Keelan Saworski scored a beauty on a pass from from Jason Lane giving the Riders the two points.

Notes

The Player of the Game was Keelan Saworski with the game winner and two assists... but I’ll make the argument that Zak Larson could have been the POG. The Riders took 2 four minute penalties in the last half of the third and the Rockies had several grade A chances that Larson stopped thus giving the boys a chance to win.

One of the 4 minutes penalties was to Grayson Neufeld who was about to get called for roughing then took an unnoticed shot from Seth Summers so he slashed him pretty good in the back of the leg and Summers fell like an Elk in hunting season. He was fine, and if I could make things different I’da had 23 slash him in the head after watching all the stuff this guy does... but I wish Dubielewicz would trade him to us this summer...

The tying goal... It was just in the nick of time to me and several of the fans in my area and we were in that end of the ice.

What the fans wanted to see
After an altercation on the ice between a few different players Kyler Shmigelsky was headed (literally) off the ice when he gave Matt Cooper a head butt. Cooper fought him and won convincingly then held his hands up to the cheering crowd. It was heartwarming to this old bas###d bringing back memories of the good old days. 

And Finally

A couple of years ago a team in our league got blasted when the scored keeper put One-Sided ahead of the referee’s name on the scoresheet. The thin skinned referees and KIJHL officials went berserk and the refs were going to refuse to ref the league. It was way over kill IMO. Anyway...

Last week when Kimberley lost 7-1 in Creston Derek Stuart went really berserk and did it in the media, basically accusing the referee ( a senior official ) of cheating in favour of any other team Kimberley plays against. See the comments below stolen from Josh Lockhart’s blog. There was more but this is what is out there and is what I can say.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Stuart... if we ever  do. The players are berated on a list on the KIJHL website every time they get suspended, and they should be, but where are the coaches suspensions ??? The league is run by the governors and they are buddies with the coaches, go figure.


"Mentally a major factor [in Creston] was that we knew we were not going to win with that official. We have a past history with him, and we knew we were not going to win."

A very bold statement by Stuart, but there are stats to back it. Including the conference finals last year the Nitro's have played 43 games, the Nitro's are 0-6 with this official, and 31-7 with all the others.

"He makes it extremely difficult for us to have a chance to win in an even playing field.

"Last night was a perfect example, it was his show. Our players have come to the point where we know that we are not going to get our fair shake with him. That was a very big mental struggle."

The Nitro's loss on Saturday was their seventh of the season, and in four of those losses, it was the same official. Stuart provided more stats, that they have been outscored 19-3 (20% of the Nitro's goals against in four games), and have had nearly 2.5 more penalties called against them in those games.

"We haven't won in six tries with this official. It has become an issue that the league hopefully does something about."

Riders lost 5-3 in Castlegar

The Riders went into Castlegar, who are battling for first overall in the KIJHL, on Saturday night and ended up losing 5-3.

This was the third game in a row and 4th in 5 days for the boys and the fatigue showed up late in the third when the Rebels broke a 3-3 tie in the last five minutes by scoring two goals in 8 seconds.

The Riders were down 3-0 half way through the game but in the third Keelan Saworski scored two in a row (1 on the PP) and Mitch Titus (PP) tied the game at 3. Then the wheels fell off late in the third.

Notes

Zak Larson was in net and the shots were 35-25 for Castlegar.

The Riders went 2-7 and the Rebels 1-5 on the powerplay

Keelan Saworski scored in each Spokane game and two vs Castlegar

Mitch Titus had a goal and 2 assists and 5 points in the second Spokane game and leads the team with 49 points.

Matt Cooper and Grayson Neufeld each had 1 assist.

254 fans at the game, some were harassing our radio guy, security? 

CR’s Jordan Wood’s second goal was the insurance goal and Ed Lindsey’s 33 goal on the year was the game winner.

Shaun Pierce was back in the lineup but Eric Welford, Derek Green and Brendan Nemes are still out with injuries.

Overall a pretty good weekend for the players, it’s tough playing three in a row and 4 in 5 days with the last  one against one of the top teams.

In other News
Kimberley lost 7-1 in Creston, and didn’t like it, they picked up a team Gross Missconduct and Harrison Risdon got 5 for kneeing in the second period. CVT’s Ron Wilkie scored 3 goals the last his 49th and Ty Witzke had 5 points.

Well were not the only team... the Rockies lost 7-4 in Golden Saturday, Shawn Grobowsky had 2 G 2A for the Rockets and 15 year old miss  Izzy Palumbo had the W in net.

Next up, on Tuesday the Riders are in Invermere to play a rescheduled game from Oct 20th then on Friday the Rockies are here in Sparwood. Saturday night the boys are in Kimberley.

Riders win second in a row in Spokane

The Ghostriders won 5-4  in Spokane Friday night. That was their second win in a row in Spokane. 

The 217 fans in Spokane were entertained, the two teams fired 107 shots at each other and scored 9 goals.

The Riders took the lead in the first and held on to it for the rest of the game.

With a 5-2 lead half way through the third the Braves scored two goals 35 seconds apart to make it close but Brock Merkl held the fort and the Riders got the win.

The Gunners
Mitch Titus scored a goal and had 4 assists, Jace Woodley had 2 goals and 2 assists while Keelan Saworski chipped in with a goal and an assist. D-man Grayson Neufeld’s PP goal in the the  third period was the game winner.

Notes
Shaun Pierce played Thursday  but sat out Friday as he is eased back into the lineup. Eric Welford, Brendan Nemes and Derek Green all missed the last two games. F-Brant Mack was in the lineup Friday, he was released by Kimberley last week.

The Riders went 3-4 on the PP and outshot Spokane 56-51. The boys will play their third game in a row in Castlegar tonight. Thursday’s game was a rescheduled game resulting in a tough three game weekend for the players. Castlegar won 6-2 in Grand Forks last night.

Kimberley won 4-1 in Invermere and Creston won 9-1 at home to Golden last night as well.

See the full game summary from last night HERE

Riders break an 8 game losing streak.

With a few players back in the lineup the Ghostriders snapped their 8 game losing streak when Devyn Stewart scored his second goal of the game with just 1:11 left in the third, and it was shorthanded to boot. See the game sheet here

That win just had to give the team a lift especially after losing 4-3 in Kimberley and 3-2 in Invermere, mostly because they were playing with as little as14 skaters and ended up losing in the third.

 Ethan Jang also scored two and one of them was a shorthanded effort in the second. Tristan Downe (1G 1A) and Keelan Saworski with his 16th scored the other goals.

Maybe the most important thing that happed in the last couple of games was the successful return of Zak Larson in the net. Zak had not played since October 27th, in his first game back he lost a 3- 2 decision in Invermere Tuesday  then won in Spokane last night. 

The big deal is that Broc Merkl, who will likely start tonight,  finally got a couple of games off...he like all starters want’s to play every game but like it or not 99 percent of starters need a rest once in a while...  Larson will also push Merkl to be at his best, this is only good news for the Riders.

In other news...

Former Rider HC and GM Will Verner was on the bench helping out Craig Mohr last night. Will lives in Osoyoos now working at a regular job... what is he thinkin...

Ethan Jang, fresh off the prospects game has been offered a spot (or a good chance to earn one) in Alberni Valley next year where he will play for a couple of former KIJHL head coaches, Jeff Dubois ( Creston last few years) and Matt Hughes who was in several different towns in a few different leagues including Invermere back in the day when we had a beam walker in the Fernie arena.

The Riders still have a couple of players out, D-Derek Green - Eric Welford and F- Brendan Nemes and 1 card left.

The boys are in Spokane again tonight and in Castlegar Saturday.

Ghostrider Player Moves

Fernie Ghostrider head Coach and General Manager Craig Mohr made a few moves at the January 10th deadline . On Jan 10th all teams must be down from 25  to 23 carded players.

So in and around the 10th GM Mohr brought in 19 year old forward Jason Lane from Revelstoke, and soon to be 19 year old forward Dylan Defosse from the Jr B Victoria Cougars.

It was a few games ago but Mohr also picked up D-man Matt Cooper who was in Nelson for a cup of coffee.

Closer to the deadline Mohr brought in 19 year old defenseman Sam Rousseau who was with Golden earlier in the season.

Mohr also accommodated forward Ty Abbott who will be 19 next month, he wanted to play closer to home so was moved to the Coaldale Copperheads in the Heritage junior B league in Alberta. All the best to Ty in Coaldale.

Cory Caldwell and Matt Rogers are both out with season ending injuries. This is the second year in a row Rogers will miss the end of the season with an injury.

I can tell you that Coach Mohr is pretty happy with the changes he has made and likes his chances when he gets  Zak Larson, Shaun Pierce, Greg Susinski, Derek Green and Brendan Nemes back in the lineup as well as Kevin Pierce. He was also happy with the 4-3 OT loss (on a PP goal) in Kimberley where they only had 14 skaters and a 15 yr old AP.

According to my math (grade 6) Mohr has 22 guys and 1 card left so can sign any uncarded (released) player (but can’t trade) up until February 10th.

Ghostrider Jan 3rd update

The Ghostriders play the Creston Thunder Cats Saturday night in Sparwood. Creston is in second place in the division,10 points behind Kimberley but 10 ahead of Columbia Valley. Creston has won four of five of the eight games these two teams will play each other this year.

The Riders are in Golden this Friday night and it is not a scheduled radio broadcast game.

Ghostrider Notebook

Kevin Pierce, who was born in Mexico, is away for a few weeks playing with Team Mexico in a tournament in Slovenia. How fun would that be playin across the ocean.

Injuries continue to take their toll on the team. Devyn Stuart, Shaun Pierce, Zak Larson, Brendan Nemes and Greg Susinski are all  unlikely for this weekend. Jordan Kromm is also out after an (as usual uncalled) cheap shot from Kimberley’s Harrison Risdon last Saturday. Come on guys get the majors, we know you had to be lookin at it.

 Ghostrider GM Craig Mohr has  added two forwards to the roster, Dylan Defrosse from Victoria and Jason Lane from Revelstoke. Then he released  Ben Kemp so they are now at 23 and if nothing changes (Mohr still has 2 cards left) this will be the team after the January 10th 23 man deadline.

Congratulations to #21 Ethan Jang for making the KIJHL’s Top Prospect’s team. Jang is a 16 year old in his first year of junior and he is from Rossland BC. Ethan’s brother Karsten

plays for the Beaver Valley Nite Hawks.

The Ghostriders are in Kimberley next Tuesday Jan 9th, and it is a radio broadcast game with Josh Hoffman at the mike.

We hear Nitro HC and GM Derek Stuart was crying to the league about security at the Sparwood arena after the last game... cause nothin never happens in Kimberley... I loved the garbage cans on the ice though...oh whatever.

There are no KIJHL games scheduled for next weekend because of the Top Prospects game in Kelowna.

The week after next the Ghostriders play two games in Spokane . 

One of the Spokane games was originally scheduled as a Fernie home game but with the arena disaster they had to cut a deal with Spokane to play the game there. There is no more ice available here anyway. 

Those Spokane games are Jan 18 and 19 then the boys play in Castlegar (who are currently on a 14 game win streak and tied for first with Kimbo 52pts) on the Saturday. A tough weekend for sure.

Check out the full Top Prospects Rosters here.

The Ghostriders next home game is January 26th against Columbia Valley. But before that they play in Invermere on Jan 23rd, that is yet another rescheduled game from October.