Ghostrider update Nov 27...

Update 
The arena will open on time for Saturday’s game vs Kimberley. So rush down to the marijuana store and rejoice .

From Ghostrider President Barb Anderson
The Fernie Ghostriders and Kimberley Dynamiters will be playing the game December 1 as scheduled at the Fernie Memorial Arena at 7:30 PM.

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to thank the City of Fernie and Tyee for making this happen.
Come out and make some noise!

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The Dynamiters won 4-3 in OT against Beaver Valley last Friday, they have a 20-3 record and are on an 11 game win streak. Oddly enough Kimberley only has one player in the top ten KIJHL scorers and that’s Brock Palmer with 9G 24A.

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The Ghostriders split yet another weekend with a win and a loss… but are trending upward, both games went into overtime so they picked up three of a possible four points. And the games were divisional games that are quickly becoming must win games… as you can see below.

Note the games in hand.

Last weekend's points keep them in the running for third place and a shot at second with all the upcoming games against the Rockies…but no one is catching Kimberley.

Ghostrider Notebook

Nikolas Sombrowski scored the opening goal in Columbia Valley and the game tying goal in the Golden game, his 8th goal in 16 games, Kyle Ford  had an assist on 5 of them and has 7 goals of his own.

Kory Zinck was irritatingly back in the lineup Saturday after an almost month long injury. 

 Ethan Jang is now out for the season with an injury… rhymes with puck. That’s two, Shaun Pierce is another  player out for the season, more nursery rhymes, both used their bodies and were hard to play against.

David Lenzin also scored a goal in both games last week, he hadn’t scored in five, but still averages a point a game…he’s too good a player not to score, maybe the puck will start to go in now.

Jordan Kromm scored a PP goal vs the Rockies and made the nice pass to Brendan Nemes when he scored the game winner in double overtime vs Golden. That was Nemes' 11th goal and second game winning goal, he has 5 on the PP.

Aiden Gleisner played in Invermere after missing nearly a month due to injury then missed Saturday, he is day to day. Just like every other year injuries are starting to take their toll...didn’t BC Hockey say the facemasks would...oh never mind  

Keelan Saworski who was the Riders leading goal scorer last season is still on the shelf for at least two more weeks but is getting closer.

Justin Faiella got the win in net vs Golden and had one of the better hits too when a Golden player tried to skate behind the net and Faiella blatantly stepped into him… it was hilarious to the guys who were behind the net, then to argue the  interference call was amusing too. 

The D in the Golden game kept the Grade A chances down to a minimum, Derek Green, Tristan Down, Kyle Klein, Sawan Gill, Greg Susinski and Josh Dalquist all played Saturday. The F’s back checked hard too.

AP’s Carson Cecconi (16) and Alim Darmenov (17) played games last weekend. They are from the Fernie Academy Fluries hockey team. Mike Carlsen is the head coach there. Rider HC Jeff Wagner liked what he saw...but he doesn’t get to keep them.

All the Riders worked and battled really hard last weekend, with out any  players on the KIJHL’s top scorers list that's the style they will have to play to win games. They even outshot Golden 54-22 and the Rockies who are a pretty good team this year 31-28.

The Ghostriders have submitted a bid to host the 2020 Cyclone Taylor Cup, read that from team President Barb Anderson here

Round the League

Friend of the blog (because he always speaks his mind in the local paper)  Barry Dewar  was convicted of tampering and thus suspended and fined earlier in the season says they are going after him because he is heading up a law suit that is challenging BC Hockey’s right to force cages on our players. Retribution is the word in the story by Marty Hastings and it may go to court in December...  

That’s another don’t go running off to the marijuana store moment, have a couple of beers while you wait and don’t get your hopes up, so called safety rules are hard to get rid of.

Nelson and Spokane had a spitting war on Twitter a couple of weeks ago the KIJHL put them on notice or something. Read that here   It was really amusing but I think most of it is deleted, gutless pukes challenging fans to fight etc... I'm an old semi retired miner...so I kinda like that stuff.  Some left overs 

We see lots of celebrating and dancing etc on TV after wins in the NHL and in the NFL after touchdowns etc  but hands down my favourite gif is right here-, click on it you won’t have to read anything  CFL player wins the best celly with this one here

Next Friday Spokane is here in Fernie, their rookie forward Bear Hughes has 27 goals and leads the KIJHL in goal scoring.

Ghostrider Scoring

Saturday in the division Nov 24

In Sparwood Brendan Nemes double overtime goal gave Fernie a 3-2 win over the Golden Rockets.

David Lenzin and Nikolas Sombrowski with the game tying goal in the third scored the other Fernie goals and Justin Faiella had the win in net stopping 20 of 22 shots.

Golden’s Ryan Baker stopped 51 of 54 shots to give the Rockets at least a point and a shot at two points on the road. 
Att 300

In Castlegar Creston was leading 3-2 half way through the second then the Rebels scored four in a row for a 6-3 win.
Colby Winia had 2 goals and an assist and Cole Bright had the win in net. 
Creston’s Connor Scammell had 1G 2A.

In Invermere the Rockies Fraser McMann had the hat-trick and Ben Kelsch stopped 30 of 34 shots for the win 6-4 win against Spokane. 
Spokane’s Alex Enegren had 2 goals

Fernie Memorial Arena Update November 24th

The arena may not open by December 1st. You like me were probably wondering exactly what they are doing in there. Your wondering days are over....they were afraid the giant beams were going to cave in if too much snow got on the roof. 

All the main beams have been reinforced with channel iron



All the bracing has been reinforced with wood




They have installed threaded rods to tighten up the structure





The contractors made scaffolds to work off of as well

Friday night in the Division

In Invermere 335 fans watched  Kale Hawryluk score the game winning goal at 3:27 of the first overtime for a 4-3 OT Rockies win    
Ben Kelsch had the win in the CVR net and Ryan Skytt tied the game with 2:30 left in the third. Chase Hawkins and Fraser McMann also scored.

Fernie had goals from Niki Sombrowski, Jordan Kromm PP and David Lenzin. Riley Fonger was in net. 

In Kimberley Mitch Fargey’s second goal of the game in the first OT was the game winner. Brock Palmer had a goal and an assist and both goalies played. Brady Daniels tied the game late in the third to take the Nitros into OT.

BV was leading 3-0 in the second but Kimberley rallied back scoring 4 in  a row for their 19th win. 

In Golden the Rockets Janson Pashniak and Louis Ferraro scored the goals and Jacob Bennett  had the shutout in net (his first ) and the Rockets win 2-0 against Spokane. 

Creston keeps pace Friday with a 5-2 win at home against Grand Forks. Five different T-Cats scored and Sam Burford had the win in net stoping 40- of 42 shots. 

FGR games, old age home,whisky graveyard construction site

THERE IS NO GAME ON THURSDAY IT HAS BEEN CANCELLED 

The Ghostriders split their weekend games again last weekend losing 6-3 to Grand Forks then rebounding back for a 2-0 shutout in Creston. 

The Ghostriders have split their weekend games for the last 4 weeks in a row... but they won’t split this weekend, they only have one game... on Saturday night in Nelson and it’s a Drive 99.1 Radio Broadcast game. 

Ghostrider Notebook

In Sparwood forward Niki Sombrowski scored the first goal of the game but the escapee from the old age home goal judge didn’t see it and the referee had to call it. It did go bar in and out pretty fast. Kyle Ford and the ref had the assists. I hope they fire that old guy.

Brendan Nemes scored on the power play from Owen Titus and David Lenzin then Nemes scored his 9th goal of the season to tie the game up at 3-3. But that was it, the physical Bruins scored two in a row then one into the empty net.

Really enjoyed watchin D Greg Susinski battle with the Bruin forwards, every battle could have seen a few PIM’s. 

On Saturday in Creston the Riders pretty much dominated the play territorially and won 2-0. Kyle Ford from Nikolas Sombrowski scored first then Greg Susinski from Johnny Elias and Jordan Kromm scored the second goal. 

Johnny Elias got a chance to play with Brendan Nemes and Jordan Kromm in Creston and they shutdown star forward Tyler Witzke...Whisky made up for it on Tuesday against Golden when he scored 4 and now has 15th goals in 17 games. 

Justin Faiella had the shutout in Creston, it was his first KIJHL shutout. Faiella was named as the McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week.

The Tim Horton’s Player of the Week was split between Brendan Nemes and 16 year old D-man Kyle Klein who coach Wagner said “ Had a good weekend”.

Klein certainly didn’t look out of place to these all ready discussed old eyes and a couple of months into the season he seems to have a much better handle on the pace of the league.

Jeff Wagner tells us that Goalies Riley Fonger and Justin Faiella will be getting some individual coaching from Evolution Goaltending’s Phil Spanswick. Only good things can come of that.

Round the League

After seeing Forward Shawn Campbell move up to the Maritime Junior A league only to come all the way back across Canada after two games with the St Stephen County Aces who are coached by former Grand Forks HC/GM Emery Olauson and former Castlegar Rebel HC/GM Bill Rotheisler a pissed off Nelson GM Lance Morey had this to say in the Nelson news.

“They have been poaching players from their former teams as well as others in the KIJHL,” Morey explained. “Almost to a player they have realized the team is poorly run and the league is a graveyard for players wanting to move forward.”

Well Nelson had lost a few games in a row...but graveyard, ha ha ha I live for quotes like that.

Reporter 101...How to get welcomed into your local team’s dressing room.
A paragraph from an Osoyoos newspaper article...
At times, it was more reminiscent of bad minor hockey as the Coyotes seemed incapable of holding onto the puck and their passes often ended up on Eagles players’ sticks. 

The Campbell River Storm won the Cyclone Taylor Cup in 2015 when they defeated Kimberley in the final. The Storm made it to the Cyclone for the next three years and are hosting the tournament this year, so they fired their Head Coach and General Manager Lee Stone... it was a no brainer

In the Jr B world that was big news. Im certain you will see Stone’s name come up somewhere in the near future, he took the CR Storm from worst to first in his four and a half year tenure. The story says that Stone will stick around and help out at the Cyclone as an advisor.  Owner Linda Lahtinen  “I will always be grateful for his efforts to help save the Storm program over the past four years and return it to the top where it belongs." I am looking forward to continue working with Lee”... Really... where Linda, on a construction site ?

The Eddie Mountain Breakdance Nov 10

Fernie 2 @ Creston 0

In Creston Justin Faiella stopped 21 shots for his first junior shutout and Nikolas Sombrowski and Greg Susinski scored the Fernie goals. 
Shots 29-21 Fernie
Sam Burford was in Creston’s net
PP’s FG 0-2 CVT 0-3
Att 326

Grand Forks 3 @ Kimberley 8

In Kimberley Brock Palmer and Keegan McDowell each scored 2 goals and Chase Gedney had 4 assists.
Adam Andersen had the win in net. 
Kimberley scored 4 PP goals  and Braiden Koran scored one shorthanded.
Shots 48-28 KD

Golden 4 @ Columbia Valley 3 OT

In Invermere Dominic Turner’s third goal of the game in overtime was the game winner. 
Ryan Baker had the win in net and the shots were 39-35 Rockies.
Ben Kelsch was in the Rockies net and Eric Lloyd had a PP goal and an assist 
Att 189

The Eddie Mountain Breakdance Nov 9

Grand Forks 6 @ Fernie 3

In Sparwood the Bruins scored 3 goals to break a 3-3 tie in the third for a 6-3 road win. Briar Whyte’s second goal was the game winner and Zane Avery and Liam Stalwick each had a goal and an assist.
Zak Larson had the win in net. 
Brendan Nemes scored 2 goals for the Ghostriders.
Shots 37-31 Fernie 
PP FG 1-4 GF 0-4

Beaver Valley 1 @ Kimberley 2

In Kimberley Cam Russell scored the game winner late in the third and Chase Gedney scored the other KD goal on the PP.
Adam Andersen had the win in net.

Shots 27-23 KD and both teams had a PP goal.
Luke Woodrow scored the BV goal and Noah Decottignies was in net.
Att 584

Columbia Valley 4 @ Golden 2

In Golden the Rockies scored 3 in the second and an ENG in the third for the win.
Chase Hawkins goal was the winner and Ben Kelsch had the win in net.
Shots 32-30 Rockets and both teams had a PP goal.
Att 181

Castlegar 3 @ Creston 2
In Creston down 2-1 the Rebels  Jesse Belley SH and Tristan Jones scored in the third period for the win and Cedric Lesieur was in net.
Creston’s Carson Small had 1G 1A and  Eric Samyn was in net.
Shots were 39 each
PP CR 0-7 CVT 1-8
Att 429

Also on Friday the Kelowna Chiefs lost 4-3 in OT in Revelstoke. That was a showdown between the top two KIJHL teams. Brody Dale scored all 3 Kelowna goals and Tommy Bodtker scored the game winner in the second overtime.

Ghostrider Update November 7th... and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders went on the road for two games last weekend. They lost 6-2 in Kelowna then won 3-1 against the North Okanagan Knights.

Ghostrider Notebook

The Ghostriders scored two shorthanded goals last week. Nikolas Sombrowski had one in Kelowna and Jordan Kromm had one in Armstrong. Sombrowski and Kromm each have 2 short handed goals and David Lenzin, Kyle Ford, Dylan Defosse, Ethan Jang and Kory Zinck have 1...you can do the math...maybe 

In Kelowna Dylan Defosse and Nikolas Sombrowski scored the goals Gregg Susinski had 2 assists and Riley Fonger was in net. Sombrowski’s goal was a no move fake that went right through their goalie... that hi light  was all over Twitter the next morning, and  thanks to Kelowna’s Justin McCartney you can See it here 

In Armstrong Jordan Kromm scored two goals and Owen Titus scored the third goal on the power play, David Lenzin and Brendan Nemes had the assists and Riley Fonger was in net for the win, his fifth win on the season. HC Jeff Wagner

“ It was a hard fought game we had 70 hits” 

After the weekend Jordan Kromm and David Lenzin lead the team in scoring with 16 points each, Kyle Ford has 15 and Greg Susinski leads the defence with 13 points. Kromm has the most goals with 8, has 3 game winners and is scoring at almost twice the pace he was last season when he had a .5 PPG average vs .9% so far this year.

Without a few top ten KIJHL scorers the Riders will need a total buy in and will have to score by the proverbial committee  to win all the divisional games they are about to play in the next few weeks. The coaching staff are working on that team concept idea as we speak.

The Kelowna play by play guy commented on how the Riders never quit right to the end... one less thing to work on.

Coach Wagner tells me he’s really happy to have twenty year old David Lenzin on his team. "His professionalism off the ice and in the room is first class”. 

Lenzin has also been a point a game player for the Ghost and when you have a veteran player like that helping lead all the younger guys in their first year away from home playing junior hockey that’s always a good thing.

Forward Kevin Duguid has joined the Riders, he played AAA Midget in Sherwood Park last year. 

The Boston Pizza Player of the Month of October was team captain Keelan Saworski. 

The Tim Horton’s Player of the Week is Jordan Kromm and the McDonald’s Practice Player was Owen Titus.

The only injury right now is Keelan Saworski. He is likely out for at least another week... he scored 26 goals last season, they need him back.

The I Can’t Standings

With an 8 point lead Kimberley is pulling away from the pack, and they just got BC’s first legal marijuana store...another recruiting advantage... damm rich keep gettin richer... meanwhile the Riders are in the middle of an Oreo cookie with the Rockies on top and the Rockets on the bottom... how will the Oreo look after this weekend's games... or will the Nitros just eat them.  Put your hand up if you thought Creston would be fighting for their playoff lives you f’n liar... Has Jeremy Blumes brought Golden back from the 3 wins last year dead ? The Rockies  started out on a tear and were even in first place for a while but have faltered lately, will the Dubewizard shuffle the deck, he still has lots of cards ... We’ll have the answers to all these stupid questions right hear in the coming weaks.

Friday's Game- In Sparwood

The Grand Forks Border Bruins are here  for their one and only game this season. The Bruins tied Golden 6-6 last Friday and won 7-5 in Invermere last Saturday. Their new head coach this season is John Clewlow from Brampton Ontario. Clewlow replaces Emery Olausen who is now with the New Brunswick Aces in the Jr A maritime league.

On Saturday the Riders go to Creston and it is not a radio broadcast game, but it is a division one.

Saturday Nov 3 the Mountain Brake Dance

The game sheets posted after the games are notoriously f'ked up. Below is what they said late Saturday.

Fernie 3 @ North Oak 1

In Armstrong Jordan Kromm’s second goal of the game was the game winner, his first G was shorthanded.
Owen Titus scored the other Rider goal on the PP
Shots 33 -27 NO and Fernie went 1-4 on the PP Oak was 0-6
Att 169 Riley Fonger had the win in net


Golden 0 @ Kimberley 7

In Kimberley Brett Anderson had the shutout Brady Daniels had 2 G 2A and Spencer Kennedy had 3 points as the Nitros crush the Rockets for their 15th win and 30th point on the season. 
Shots 58-20 and Kimberley was 2-4 on the PP
Att 632


Grand Forks 7 @ Columbia Valley 5

In Invermere the Bruins scored 4 in the third and  Jake Huculak’s second goal of the night in the third was the game winner. Nathan Cohen-Wallace had 5 points and Zane Avery had 4. Zak Larson had the win in net. 

Eric Lloyd and Dace Prymak each had a goal and an assist for the CVR.
Shots 38-34 GFBB
PP GFBB 2-6 CVR 3-5
Att172

Creston 3 @ Osoyoos 4 

In Osoyoos Adam Diotte scored the game winner on the PP with :48 seconds left in the third. Rhys Lepine tied the game and Peter Michallides had two goals. Daniel Paul had the win in net.

Creston’s Tyler Witzke and Andrew Clark each had 3 point nights. Eric Samyn was in Creston’s net. 
Shots 36-31CVT
PP CVT 3-7 OC 1-5

The Eddie Mountain Breakdown

Fernie 2 @ Kelowna 6

In Kelowna home star Ryan Stack had 2 goals and an assist including the game winner early in the third. Kayson Gallant had a goal and an assist and Braeden Mitchell had the win in net.

Fernie’s Nikolas Sombrowski scored shorthanded and was the away star. 
The shots were 25-32 Kelowna and Fernie went 0-2 Kelowna 1-1 on the power play. 
Att 408

Columbia Valley 1 @ Kimberley 5

In Kimberley Braiden Koran scored a pair of goals and Adam Andersen had the win in net.
The shots were 52-21 Kimberley
PP’s CVR 0-3 KD 0-4
Att 637
Kimberley now has a 6 point lead on the Rockies for first place, and have a game in hand. 

Creston 3 @ Summerland 6

In Summerland the Steam scored 3 third period goals, 2PP 1EN for the 6-3 win. Morey Babakaiff’s PP goal was the game winner and Linden and Mitchell Grove each had 3 point nights. Jared Breitkreuz had the win in net.
Creston’s Carson Small had a PPgoal  a SH goal and an assist. 
Shots 41-31 Steam
CVT went 1-7 and Summerland 3-6 on the powerplay. 
Att 163

Grand Forks 6 @ Golden 6 OT

In Golden Dominic Turner scored two third period goals in a row to tie the Bruins at 6. OT settled nothing. Rocket Jaden Callan had a goal and 3 assists and Bryce Trimmer had 3 points as well. Jacob Bennett was in the Rocket net.

Zane Avery, Nathan Cohen-Wallis and August Demaere each had 2 goals for the Bruins and Ross King was in net. 
Shots 33-28 GFBB
GF no PP and Golden 0-1
Att 340