Riders take a 2-0 series lead

With the win the Riders have a 2-0 series lead going into Invermere Friday and Saturday night.

Columbia Valley 0 @ Fernie 6

In Fernie the Ghostriders scored one in the first one in the second then four in the third for a 6-0 win

Riley Fonger had the shutout and Jordan Kromm scored three goals. Keelan Saworski, Tyler Witzke and Nikolas Sombrowski each had singles.

The shots were 47-17 and the Riders went 3-4 on the powerplay and killed 2 Rockies PP’s.



Other scores from Round' the League
All the home teams won tonight.

Golden 3 @ Kimberley 5- KD leads 2-0
Sicamous 3 @ 100 Mile 4 -100 leads 2-0
Grand Forks 4 @ Beaver Valley 5 OT- BV leads 1-0
Kamloops 1 @ Revelstoke 3- Revy leads 2-0
Spokane 1 @ Nelson 2- Nelson leads 2-0
Princeton 2 @ Summerland 6 - series tied 1-1
Osoyoos 1 @ Kelowna 3 - Kelowna leads 2-0

Riders win game 1 in OT

After the Wednesday Feb 27th  game the teams will play two games in Invermere on Friday and Saturday. The next game in Fernie will be Monday March 4th  if needed. Game 7 would be March 6th

Game #1

Fernie 4 Columbia Valley 3 OT

There was no scoring in the first period but in the second period the Ghostriders scored three in a row.

1/David Lenzin from Aiden Gleisner and Tristan Downe, 
2/Brendan Nemes from Nikolas Sombrowski and Keelan Saworski 

3/ Sawan Gill unassisted. 

The Rockies answered back with a power play goal and a shorthanded goal, both by Chase Hawkins and the period ended 3-2 Fernie.

In the third Zachary Giacobbo from Connor Zdan and Kyler Shmigelsky scored another power play goal and the third ended up tied.

In the overtime Gavin Lawrie from Derek Greenscored the game winning goal giving the Riders a 1-0 series lead on the Rockies.

Shots were 47-24 Fernie

Riley Fonger got the win in net and Ben Kelsch was in the Rockies net.

Fernie was 0-4 and the Rockies went 2-4 on the power play.

Att 420

Other Scores Round the League

Golden 1 @ Kimberley 6 

Spokane 2 @ Nelson 3 OT 

Sicamous 1 @ 100 Mile 3

Kamloops 2 @ Revelstoke 10

Osoyoos 1 @ Kelowna 10

Princeton 7 Summerland 6 OT

Some Fernie #’s and Round the League

Rider Rockies first round P/O series

The first two games of the 2018-19 KIJHL playoffs featuring the Fernie  Ghostriders and the Columbia Valley Rockies starts in Fernie Tuesday- Wednesday the 26-27th. 

The other division playoff has Kimberley playing Golden. The winners will play each other in the second round starting March 8th.

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The Rider Rockies matchup promises to be a fairly close series. So far the Ghostriders have won three games tied two and lost one in overtime. The Riders have outscored the Rockies 26-16 in their six regular season games and won 5-0 in Fernie last Friday and tied 4-4 in Invermere Saturday.

The Rockies top scorers are Drace Prymac 38 Fraser McMann 26 and Jesse Carr with 34 points.

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Ghostrider Notes

Some Ghostrider Numbers

The Riders finished with 60 points and were 5th overall in the KIJHL. They were also 5th overall in plus minus at +34 and they scored 168 goals.

The Rockies had 50 points and were -23 and scored 159 goals.

Jordan Kromm was the Riders top scorer with 54 points and Brendan Nemes with 3 goals last weekend was the top goal scorer with 25, 8 were on the powerplay.

Jordan Kromm, Kyle Ford, and Tyler Witzke each had 5 game winning goals.

Greg Susinski was the top scoring defenceman with 27 points including 5 powerplay goals. The rest of the D have been chipping in with a few goals lately, could be an important turning point for the FGR

The Riders killed 88.73% of their penalties, second only to Revelstoke who killed 92.11% of theirs. The Riders scored on 20.9 % of their power play chances and were sixth overall in that category.

In net Riley Fonger finished with a 12-12 W/L record along with 2 ties and 4 shutouts. Justin Faiella was 11-5 with 1 tie and 2 shutouts.

Sebastian Iannuzzi is the only player on the injury list, he was hurt Friday by a vicious 5 min cheap shot head shot from the Invermere's Logan MacDonald he will miss game one because of a two game suspension he picked up. Iannuzzi misses the first round... lucky he had that cage he woulda bin out for the season...

The Riders finished with 738 PIM, several years ago we had 3500 minutes... good by old friend

Round the League

Kelowna was +165 and won the league with 89 points, Kimberley was second with 88 and Revelstoke had 85.

Kimbo plays Golden who have two players suspended to start the P/O's, Steven Bigam  4 games for grabbing a face mask (don’t you ever take one of them off Steven, signed BC Hockey) and Ryan Taylor 2 games for accumulated head contact PIM’s. Both were against Kimberley...why not do it in the playoffs, get these guys the learning channel.

Kelowna had the top two scorers Brody Dale who turned 19 in October had 123 points and  Zach Erhardt 101. First time in 6 years a player has had more than 100.

Kelowna also had Coach Ken Law who was gassed from the always in first place (when he was there anyway)  Osoyoos Coyotes last summer... so Law went to Kelowna. Can you guess which 4th place team with the most PIM 1520 is stuck playing in Kelowna Tuesday. If you can’t beat em in the orchard...

Nelson plays Spokane, these two have had some interesting things to say about each other on social media this year including accusations of laughing at injured players and the usual he said she said stuff... if they build it we will come (and report it), from the arena of dreams.

KIJHL goal scoring Brody Dale had 50, Spokane rookie Bear Hughes  41 and Rocket rookie Dominic Turner had 38... all under 20yrs old. 

Riders Rockies tie and the Rockies finish in third.

In Invermere the Ghostriders tied the Rockies tonight 4-4.
In Kimberley the Nitros defeated Golden 6-3.
In Fernie on Tuesday the Rockies will play Fernie in the first round of the playoffs.

In Invermere Rockies Connor Davidson tied the game at 4 with just :50 seconds left in the third. OT solved nothing.

Brendan Nemes had 2 goals and an assist and Derek Green, and Owen Titus (1G1A) scored the other Rider goals. 
Justin Faiella was in the Rider net.

The shots were 55-35 Fernie and power plays did not figure into the scoring.

CVR goalie CJ Wedenig was the star of the game. Brendan Nelson, Dace Prymak and Jesse Carr scored the other CVR goals. 

FINAL STANDINGS

Riders win Friday Wagner is the Eddie Mt Coach of the Year

At the game tonight Rider Head Coach Jeff Wagner was named as the Eddie Mountain Coach of the Year 


The Riders won 5-0 Friday but still do not know for sure who they will play in the first round. 
The Rockies have 1 point on Golden and play at home tomorrow against the Riders. If they win they are in third and in Fernie Tuesday.
Golden needs the Rockies to lose tomorrow and they also need to win in Kimberley tomorrow. 

Kelowna beat Revelstoke 4-3 in OT and are the KIJHL regular season champs. 

Columbia Valley 0 @ Fernie 5

In Fernie D-  Greg Susinski, Kyle Ford and Jordan Kromm each had a goal and 2 assists, Brendan Nemes and Josh Dalquist (SH) scored singles and Justin Faiella had the shutout in net. 

The Riders killed 6 penalties and scored on 2 of six power plays and 1 shorthanded .
Att 1070

Riders Play the Rockies tonight Feb 22 and a few other things

The Ghostriders will finish out the regular season with a home and home against the Columbia Valley Rockies. They are a potential first round playoff opponent.

The Rockies have 49 points and are in third place but they are just one point ahead of Golden who has 48. Golden will end their regular season in Kimberley Saturday night. 

The Ghostriders will finish in second place and will play whoever  finishes in third place.

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The Ghostriders playoff ticket changes

Playoff tickets will be sold for each game and are not transferable. If you buy a ticket for game one and do not use it you can not use it to get into any other game.

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Here is their official release

The Fernie Ghostriders will be pre-selling tickets for their first round playoff games at Gear Hub, Fernie Auto Parts, The Fernie Hotel and Tim Horton`s. Games 1 and 2 will be on February 26 & 27. 

See stores for details! During the games we are promoting a white out. All fans are encouraged to wear white. See you at the Fernie Memorial !

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Ghostrider Notes

The Riders lost 3-1 in Grand Forks and 4-3 in Nelson last weekend.  Grand Forks is in a battle with Spokane for third place and a date with Beaver Valley, fourth gets to play the first place by a mile Nelson Leafs, I can think of reason’s not to play either team...pick your poison. 

Defensive defenseman  Tristan Downe scored his first goal and smooth D man Sawan Gill had a goal and an assist in Nelson. The D has not scored many goals this season but they seem to be moving in that direction just in time.

If you were wondering where #8 Nikolas Sombrowski was a couple of weeks ago we have the answer, he was playing with the Junior A Salmon Arm Silverbacks  and had a goal and an assist in the two weekend games he played in against Trail . So far Niki has played 7 games and has 1 goal and 3 assists. 

Sombrowski  just turned 18 in January so he is the ideal age to move up to the Jr “A”  level next year. As far as this writer is concerned Sombrowski is already a Jr A skater and he wins a lot of board battles so he’s Jr  “A” strong. He will probably be with the Backs next year, and maybe even with the Backs if they are still alive whenever the Riders season ends this year. 

Jordan Kromm and Brendan Nemes each scored their 22nd goals last week. Tyler Witzke is right behind with 21, two more games left it will be an interesting track meet, I mean race, coaches hate the track meet thoughts.

Round the League

The Kelowna Chiefs with 87 points are first overall but have not clinched yet, they host Revelstoke with 82 tonight. Kimberley has 84. It will be an interesting night tonight, and even more so if Revelstoke wins. All three teams have 2 games left and all believe they have a chance to go to the KIJHL final, so the points will mean home ice.

Not sure I'm buying that a team may load up with AP’s to gain a more favourable first round opponent. But I could be wrong.

The 100 Mile House Wranglers won their bid to host the 2020 Cyclone Taylor Cup. Most teams kept quiet about the bidding process but we do know that Fernie, Kimberley and Invermere and possibly Beaver Valley applied to host.The Ghostriders were the host team in 2011 and won Silver. Campbell River is this year’s host team starting April 10-14.

Fernie Golden and the Rockies lost Saturday- a war in Kimberley

The Ghostriders lost 4-3 in Nelson Saturday. The game was tied 3-3  in the third before Nelson’s Jack Karran scored the game winner with 8:59 left in the game.
Fernie had goals from Sawan Gill 1G 1A) , Brendan Nemes and Tristan Downe. Nikolas Sombrowski had 2 assists and Justin Faiella was in net.

Nelson’s Tulsen Fawcett was in on all the scoring and finished with 2G 2A  Caiden Kreitz got the win in net.

Nelson went 2-6 and Fernie was 1-3 on the power play.
With both teams gearing up for the playoffs they played a very defensive game the shots were 17-15 NL.

In Kimberley the Nitros blasted Golden 6-1 and went 4-14 on the power play and outshot them 60-18. You will want to see the game sheet penalties... match, head contact  etc See it here

Meanwhile in Beaver Valley the Rockies lost 5-1.  Saran Virdee was the first star.

So what that means is the Rockies still have a 1 point lead on Golden who has one game left in Kimberley next weekend. The Rockies play a home and home with Fernie starting in Fernie on Friday. 











and Golden lost 

Riders lost 3-1 in Grand Forks, the Rockies won in Castlegar

The Ghostriders lost in Grand Forks Friday and the Columbia Valley Rockies won in Castlegar. 

The Rockies now have 1 point on Golden for third place and a date with the Riders. The Rockies play in Beaver Valley Saturday then have a home and home with Fernie next weekend.

Golden is in Kimberley Saturday and again  next Saturday. Meanwhile Kimberley who won 4-2 in Creston Friday are just 1 point behind Kelowna for first overall so the Rockets will have their hands full Saturday.

The Ghostriders still do not know who they will play in the first round. We have a 49 game schedule.




Fernie 1 @ Grand Forks 3

In Grand Forks Jordan Kromm (Bergsagel ) scored the lone Rider goal in the second period. The Bruins Nathan Cohen tied it 1-1 later in the period.
In the third  Josh Garlough and Jake Huculak scored and the game ended 3-1 for the GFBB.

Shots 27-37 GF
Riley Fonger was in the FGR net Ross King for the Bruins 

Columbia Valley 6 @ Castlegar 4

In Castlegar Fraser McMann’s shorthanded goal in the second turned out to be the game winner and Ben Kelsch had the win in net. 6 Rockies scored, Kale Hawryluk had 1G 2A  

Jeff Wagner has signed on for two more years

Press release from Fernie Ghostrider President Barb Anderson

The Fernie Ghostriders  are pleased to announce that Jeff Wagner has accepted a new two year deal to Coach and Manage the Fernie Ghostriders. 

This was Jeff’s first season as a Head Coach and GM and he has shown through his work ethic and hockey knowledge that he is more than capable of Coaching and Managing our hockey team both on and off the ice. 

 The Ghostrider  Board of Directors are very excited to continue working with Jeff and Assistant Coaches Justin Peers and Jered Neufeld and their vision for our team.

Jeff Wagner

"I’m very excited to be in Fernie for 2 more years. This is a great organization that has shown a large amount of support to me and my family."

"Fernie is a fantastic community to be a part of and extending my time here was an easy decision. I’d like to thank Barb Anderson and the Board of Directors for putting their trust in me. Looking forward to the challenge!”
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So there you have it Wagner will lead the Riders for a couple more seasons. But at this level coaches always have an out in their contract that lets them move up to Jr A if the right opportunity lands on their doorstep. 

That being said I’m guessing Jeff will probably stay here for one more year anyway before some Jr A team makes this up and comer  an offer he can’t refuse.

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When first year Head Coach Jeff Wagner was hired he was selected from a group that featured a few experienced and KIJHL ready coaches. So it was a bit of a leap of faith that the Board took when they brought in a younger less experienced coach, but Wagner has rewarded the Board and all the fans by moulding a team built from a nucleus of players who finished in fourth place with with 34 points into to a second place squad with 57 points with four games remaining.

But really, at least to me,  the leap of faith wasn’t all that big of a leap as Wagner was mentored by former Creston HC and GM Jeff Dubois who made Creston a contender in the three years he was there and won a couple of championships with the Selkirk Saints of the BCIHL before that. 

Dubois was always considered one of the few  “friends of the blog” and has been featured on these pages several times over the years. JD is currently with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the Jr A BCHL. 
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In a related story... The Ghostriders will finish the regular season in second place.

Jeff Wagner on finishing in second place.

It’s definitely something we can be proud of as a group. Our goal going into the second half of the season was to put ourselves in a position to have home ice for the first round of playoffs. It’s important to acknowledge those accomplishments. In saying that, we can now refocus our energy towards ramping things up for the journey that lies ahead of us.

Riders clinch second place

Congratulations to the Players and Coaches !

The Ghostriders have clinched second place in the division after tonight’s 6-1 win vs the Rockies. Meanwhile the Golden Rockets with their 5-2 win are now in third place by 1 point.

The Rockies have 4 more games left Golden 2. The Riders will have home ice in the first round starting Feb 26th against whoever finishes third.


Columbia Valley 1 @ Fernie 6

In Fernie after a very close first period the Ghostriders exploded for 3 goals in the second and 3 in the third for a 6-1 win. They're 25th win on the season.

 Johnny Elias, David Lenzin and Dylan Defosse each scored on the power play and Aiden Gleisner, Johnny Elias and Sawan Gill scored at even strength.

Defenceman Sawan Gill’s goal was a beauty goal scorers goal, a nice way to score your first KIJHL goal. The bench sure looked happy about it.

Riley Fonger had the win in net and the shots were 55-25.
Att 800.

In Golden Rocket  Briar Whyte had 2 goals and an assist and Dominic Turner scored his 35th goal for a 5-2 win over Creston.

In  other games of note, Kimberley hammered Grand Forks 10-1and now have 80 points 1 behind Kelowna with 81 Revelstoke with 76 is third. First overall gets home ice all through the playoffs.

Who will the Riders play-notes-round the league you know what to expect

Who will the Ghostrider’s play in the 1st P/O round

The Riders only play one game this week and it’s at home against the Rockies who with a 3 point lead missed out on a chance to distance themselves from Golden in the standings when they lost 3-1 to Kimberley and 6-1 to Nelson last week. Golden kept pace with the Rockies by losing  4-3 to Nelson and 6-3 to Fernie.

Golden has 4 games left, they host a motivated Grand Forks who are in a fight with Spokane for third place then play Creston this weekend before ending the season with two in Kimberley. Probably better get the wins this weekend Rockets.

Meanwhile the Rockies have fallen mightily in the last few weeks, they had what looked to be an insurmountable 10 point lead on the Riders before Christmas... now Fernie leads by 8.

The Rockies have 6 games left, 2 at home vs Kimberley and Fernie and 4 on the road in Fernie (2) Castlegar and Beaver Valley... with 2 extra games and 3 points in the standings the odds are the Rockies will be here in Fernie Tuesday February 26-27 for the first round of the P/O's... 

All the local math grads tell me that with 6 games left the Rockies could still actually pass the Riders and get second place...but I didn’t go to skool... obviously 

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Ghostrider Notes 

The Coaches picked Dylan Defosse as January’s Boston Pizza Player of the Month.The other POM’s were, starting in September Kyle Ford, Keelan Saworski, Brendan Nemes and Riley Fonger

With his goal last weekend Brendan Nemes has caught Tyler Witzke in the goal scoring department with 21goals and with 41 points is just 5 behind Jordan Kromm who has now doubled his point totals from last year  with 46.

Team Captain Keelan Saworski scored both Rider goals against Beaver Valley and was named as the Tim Horton’s Player of the Week and

 In the second period of the Beaver Valley game one of the Hawk forwards had a breakaway but the smooth skating Tristan Downe made a great diving play from behind and knocked the puck off the  player’s stick. It was a classic hit the puck first diving takeaway by Downe... so they call a penalty shot ? Come on you guys the fans come to see goals saves passes and great defensive plays like that, you’ve taken all the mayhem away and put cages on everyone at least let the D make nice plays.


Niki Sombrowski and Kyle Ford have been line-mates all season and have had assists on almost all of each others goals. So it was a somewhat leap of faith that the coaches split them up... but it seems to have worked, Sombrowski scored the game winner in Golden and Ford had two goals. Maybe them coaches know what they’re doing after all.

Injuries
After missing a month David Lenzin fit seamlessly back in the lineup last weekend and didn’t seemed slowed at all. Lenzin was the McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week. Coach Wagner says Greg Susinski and Josh Dalquist have been skating as well and could play this weekend. 

Round the League

Ok fans It’s time for the annual Coach of the Year Popularity contest. Every season the coaches from their respective divisions vote on each other for the Coach of the Year award. 

Like em or not KD’s Derek Stuart has always had the best team but has never won it, I wonder why... I'm good with it though, but will call a spade a spade if I see fit. It’s what we do here. 

This season we have a couple of guys who have made giant turnarounds with their respective teams. Golden’s Jeremy Blumes got the Rockets from 3 wins to a playoff spot and Fernie’s -Jeff Wagner’s Riders went from 34 points to 55 with 5 games left... meanwhile Stuart has a 21 point lead on everyone. 

I don’t have a vote and don’t want one, the coaches who coach against each other know better than anyone else in and around the league who the best coach is. I just wonder who's the most popular... and maybe this will piss some people off as well.

Riders win Saturday on groundhog day. The Division games

The Ghostriders won Saturday extending their lead on the Rockies to 8 points. Both the Rockies and Rockets lost their games this weekend and remain 3 points apart in the standings. Kimberley has run away with first place.

The Riders will play the Rockies in Fernie next Saturday.



Fernie 6 @ Golden 3

In Golden Nikolas Sombrowski’s second period goal turned out to be the game winner but Briar Whyte made it close on the PP  and the second ended 4-3 . In the third  Kyle Ford (2) and Sebastian Iannuzzi scored to end it  6-3.
Gavin Lawrie scored in the first and Brendan Nemes finished with a goal and an assist.
Justin Faiella stopped 40 of 43 shots in net and was the Riders game star. 

Rocket Colton Hutchinson had a G and an A and Dominic Turner PP scored his 34th goal .

In Invermere the Nelson Leafs won 6-1 against the hometown Rockies. Six Leafs scored and Nelson went 3-3 on the PP,  the Rockies were 0-5. The shots were almost even 33-31 NL Hunter Young got the win in the Leaf net.

In Kimberley the Nitros won 5-2 against Creston. Five different Dynamiters scored and Adam Andersen had the win in net. Both Carter Spring and Neil Kingston scored shorthanded as well.

The Eddie Mt div Friday Feb 1st

The Ghostriders lost a close 3-2 game Friday but didn’t lose any ground as both the Rockies and Golden lost their games as well.




Beaver Valley 3 @Fernie 2 

In Fernie Simon Nemethy and Mike Hagen scored in the second period and Ryan Crisalli scored what turned out to be the game winner in the third. Noah Decottignies had the win in net.

The shots 32-27 Fernie. Keelan Saworski scored both Rider goals on the power play and Riley Fonger was in net.
Att 615.

In Invermere Nitro’s Chilton, McDowell and Bertoia scored one in each period and Brett Anderson had the win in net and Kimberley wins 3-1.
Shots 30-32 KD and neither team scored on the PP. KD had 6 chances and CVR had 5

In Golden the Nelson Leafs Jack Karran scored mid third for a 4-3 Nelson win over the Rockets.
It was tied 3-3 going into the third but Nelson outshot the GR 12-4 and scored the only goal in the period.