Riders lost 4-3 round the league and the usual drivel

Went out last Saturday to watch the Ghostriders play Creston and the game ended up 4-3  Creston giving them a four point lead on the Riders for second place. Kimberley who just defeated Revelstoke 6-1on the road remain in first.  

Kimberley  picked up Ryan Piva last week, he had 4 points in Revy as did scoring sensation Brock Palmer... like they needed anymore firepower. 


The Riders were trailing 2-1 after two then 3-1 about six minutes into the third vs Creston. They made it close when Spare Player who’s real name is Levi Young scored  from a bad angle... it was a rocket of a shot.  It’s not that hard to enter the players name on the esports website, I think the coaches call it attention to detail whenever they’re berating their players. Fernie is not the only team to miss that   

In a nutshell, Creston was the better team in the first the Riders the second and in the third Creston wanted it more.


1/Nice to see former Rider  Derek Green wearing an A
2/Carson Small had 2G
3/ CVT Kyle James showed flashes of brilliance, his brother was a  star in the league a couple of years ago
4/Wingenbach and CVT Small were named players of the game
5/ Shots 40-39 Creston and 7 goals scored made it interesting
6/ Alaister Standen who we talked about last week did not play
7/ Dylan Defosse had an assist but missed on a couple of clear breakaways, could have changed some things...how does he get so open
8/Owen Titus scored as a forward but got put back on D. It may have been his first goal according to the website... but you can’t always believe what you see there
9/Creston loves playing here before the time change, they get home an hour earlier. The Riders are in Creston on Bill Ohlhausen time next Friday so it starts at 8:30, it is a scheduled Drive 99.1 Radio broadcast game 
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Round the League

Nelson beat Beaver Valley 3-1 in BV Friday, they are a premier team and play here in Fernie next month. BV is almost here next weekend...but they are not, they play in Elkford

Fernie local Nick Mitchell was playing in Grand Forks and just got traded to the Comox Glacier Kings. Former Creston Coach Jeff Dubois is in Comox and played him Saturday.

Castlegar’s Hunter Maximnuk (3) and Nelson’s Jaden Shumilak (2) were recently suspended for harassment of officials. They don’t keep the suspensions up for more than a few days so you have to keep checking. Makes it look like the cages have sanitized the game... but they haven’t... and they aren’t the first players suspended for harassing  refs, thick mouth guards so they can’t talk are next...

It’s now official North Oak has lost 8 points. Read it here
This seems to happen every year and it makes the league look really amateurish. If you can’t trust the GM’s to check the Hockey Canada registration page then you have to hire a league registrar . Make it so nobody can put a player on the game sheet who isn’t carded properly. Or use the Hockey BC game sheets, then only properly carded players and coaches can be entered. Yes we hear the esports web page won’t support the Hockey BC game sheets, why do we love esports so much...

The Jr A Calgary Mustangs were rumoured to be moving to Cranbrook last summer but never were, they are moving to Blackfaulds Alberta read that here

Convincing math alaister shutout id like to see round the league Palmer

Sooo the Ghostriders had a fairly convincing 7-0 win over Summerland on Friday then Beaver Valley had a fairly convincing 8-3 win over Fernie on Saturday. Hawk Brad Ross,  the KIJHL’s second leading scorer, had 2G 2A

But it doesn’t make sense, the night before the aforementioned BV Hawks only managed to tie the visiting Golden Rockets 3-3 and last week  the Riders won 4-2 in Golden so what gives... answer- there is no such thing as  A² plus B² equaling anything of value in hockey, or, if you ask me, in life either. I just learned how to put the little² above a letter so I wanted to use it.

Jordon Kromm was the Riders top scorer last year, he scored two in BV, his 5th and 6th keeping himself at an even point a game.

New forward Alaister Standen who was in Melford (SJHL) and I think was a AAA midget player last year in Okotoks also scored in BV and had one against Summerland. He’s for real  an upgrade and worthy of keeping an eye on. He seems to have some chemistry  with Seamus Kieth  who has had points in his last 4 games but missed a couple with an injury.

Gavin Lawrie who the Riders had to do circus acts to reacquire from Creston in September scored 3 vs Summerland, had an assist in BV and has 6 points in his last 3 games.

Ethan Fitzgerald   wears #1 and seems to be the Riders #1 got first KIJHL shutout Friday but was in net in BV the next night. Shutouts are hard to get... you can’t daydream, some of us would never get one.

In the things I’d like to see department... Summerland’s Ethan Grover who wore #14  teamed up with the Rider’s Greg Susinski that pairing would strike fear in a few KD jets with big hands.

Round the League

Creston  will be here in Fernie next week for a big, well as big as it gets in October anyway, divisional game . They lost 5-4 to Kimberley Friday when big hands  Brock Palmer scored in OT... his 4th point  his line mate Jett Saharchuk had 3A

In Revelstoke the Chase Chiefs' Vince Benedetto faced 61 shots and got the 3-2 OT win. Breckin Erichuk scored the overtime GW on the power play after the  Griz took an OT spearing penalty. Hockey gods speak sometimes.

Loclyn Kabatoff  who I think led the KI in PIM with 211 last year is back at it leading the way with a 12 game suspension for the physical abuse  of an official. I didn’t see the video but they need to protect the refs. A far cry from Zach Baba 


The Nelson Leafs  are here in November and have won 7 in a row. They just got Shawn Campbell (99) back, he has 9 goals in 5 games. We get to see the NL twice in November.

The Rockies are on a 3 game win streak and back in the race for the final playoff spot, they won in 100 and Kamloops this weekend. They make their first appearance in Fernie in November. 

The North Okanagan Knights are the first team to lose points for using an ineligible player. But it may not be final. I most certainly have an opinion on that but lets find out if it’s for sure first.


I have had a few people ask me if I knew where Tyler Palmer was playing this season. He is with the Northern Alberta Extreme Elite 15’s. They attract some great players, last year the Extreme had Matt Savoie  he was drafted 1st overall in the WHL  bantam draft by the former Cranbrook Ice who are in Winnipeg now. Have a great season Tyler... wouldn’t it be nice to have a Fernie kid in the lineup for a change 


 Photo -Tyler Palmer- is stolen from the Extreme web page

Elias, good dog, ammonia algebra close the Gates in Nelson Jeff trans discipline

The Ghostriders won 4-2 in Golden Saturday. Soon to be 19 year old speedy forward Johnny Elias scored his 4th and 5th goals and is on a 6 game scoring streak that saw him rack up 10 points... he has 13 so far in just 10 games, it took him 39 games last year to get to that lucky number. A year older at that age can make a big difference... it gave his stick a chance to catch up to his feet.

Gavin Lawrie scored the GW in Golden, Elias had the primary apple.

Former Rider Kory Zinck was traded to Kimberley from Creston last week. When Creston was here in September Zinck was stirring it up in front of the Rider net inciting a scrum that saw Aiden Gleisner come from behind and start patting him on the head like he was saying good dog Kory good dog...  I just love that s**t Gleisner scored the first goal in Golden last Saturday as well, his 3rd and 8th point.

Goalie Chance Griffith has taken off, he won his last 4 starts in a row 3 were on the road 2 were against divisional opponents and 1 was at home vs Princeton, who had just won in Kimberley.

Kimberley had to cancel their game vs Golden last weekend and we speculated it was an ammonia leak and that was confirmed HERE    Princeton was late getting into their rink because they changed away from ammonia and Cranbrook’s small rink had an ammonia problem in September. Lest we forget

Kimberley beat Kelowna 3-2 Saturday, we don’t do algebra here so just because Fernie lost to Kelowna it doesn’t mean they are better...they might be, we’ll find out more in December.

The Nelson Leafs who lost all but 1 game in September have won 4 in a row in October but were in the news for another reason last week when D man Andrew Gates had to retire because of concussions     Last year Nelson’s Logan Wullam retired for the same reasons...but back then players and coaches could tell everyone what they really felt and on Twitter it was a gong show.   Read a small taste of the hysterics  here

The struggling 0-10 Osoyoos Coyotes just picked up goalie Curt Doyle from the previously struggling Nelson Leafs, it is Doyle’s 4th team, click his underlined name. Curt made 57 saves against Revelstoke Saturday night... he certainly gave his team a chance to win but the Yotes lost 1-0.

I heard some coaches think Revelstoke has the best team, we won’t see them here in Fernie this year but the players go to Revy in January.

Jeff Dubois has been coaching in the BCHL in Alberni Valley for the last couple of years but just moved to the Island where he will take over the Comox Valley Glacier Kings in the VIJHL. Dubois, you may remember, was the boss in Creston for a few years and won two championships with the BCIHL Selkirk Saints in the college league . Congrats Jeff.

And finally... and not a moment too soon. Have a clean house, HC is watching the face-mask leagues The KIJHL has done a fantastic job of posting the transactions this year but it’s a case of giving with one hand (Thanksgiving) and taking away with the other (Carbon Tax ). The discipline page does not keep the suspensions up for the season even though they are cumulative . Last year you could see all suspensions listed on the transaction page for the whole season and you could see for yourself who was accumulating games. Go to the transaction page then go back a year and check it out if you don’t believe.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers Twitter and Facebook followers and anyone else illiterate enough to understand this

Three Eddie Mountain teams lost Friday

Kelowna 3 @ Fernie 2

Kelowna came into town as the only undefeated team in the KILHL... they left town the same way, but barely.

The Chiefs got up 2-0,  the Riders tied the game in the second, but in the third Kelowna’s Isaac Dutka scored the game winner early in the period and they picked up the win.

One of Kelowna’s  goals was scored on goalie miss-cue but make no mistake they are a good mobile team who can score, they average  4.43 goals a game, Fernie  3.60,  Kimberley 4

Fernie had 3 penalties Kelowna 4... but Fernie’s PIM were in the third and cost the team six minutes while down a goal and they were outshot 11-4. In other words Kelowna didn’t have to hang on to their 3-2 lead

Braeden Mitchell got the win in net and Ethan Fitzgerald took the loss in the FG net.

Notes

Brody Bauder scored his first FG goal, Kelowna is 7-0 now and head into Kimberley tonight (Saturday Oct 12) Fernie goes to Golden and it is a scheduled Drive 99.1 radio broadcast game. 700 fans at the game Friday

The Riders missed a chance to gain on the Nitro’s because....

 Kimberley lost 5-3 to Castlegar, they also lost to Princeton a few games ago... maybe they don’t take the weaker teams seriously... or, as I believe,  the league is weaker this year and several teams have a chance to win including the usual seller dweller North Okanagan Knights who with 17 points lead the KI now... but not all teams have played an equal amount of games... can you hear me Fernie fans. 

The Rockies also lost 5-2 in Beaver Valley, they have 16 points. Creston and Golden did not play. Tonight the Rockies are in Castlegar and Spokane is in Creston.

Riders get 5 of six points on the weekend

The Ghostriders picked up 5 of a possible 6 points on their long three game road trip.

They lost 4-3 in OT in Chase (A point  on the road is always good)
They won 4-1 in 100 Mile
And won 5-2 in Kamloops 

The on line game sheets are notorious for being wrong and changed the next day... anyway here’s what we can only guess happened in the last three games.

Good team effort with nine different Riders in on the 13 goals


Dylan Defosse “C” had two goals and five points.

The Rider D were in on half of the goals 

New rookie Andrew Bonham scored his first goal last week vs Princeton then scored in Chase and 100 Mile, but was shutout in Kamloops

D man Aaron Hladiuk got his first goal and 6th point in Kamloops, he will get lots more IMO

Rookie Dylan Nevil had a goal (GW)  and an assist in Kamloops

Aiden Gleisner scored two and had an assist on the trip

Brody Bauder scored his first of the season in Kamloops

New D Mike Holowatuk who has been around for a while but was injured played all three games and had two assists.

Seamus Keith missed the Kamloops game because of a suspension he got late in the 100 Mile game when Wrangler cowboy Kyler Opp got five for charging. We assume he was defending himself or sticking up for a teammate.. but we have no way of knowing that for sure.

Jordan Kromm and Gavin Lawrie have played 104 regular season KIJHL games. 100 seems to be a thing lately on Twitter

Goalies Ethan Fitzgerald played in Chase and Kamloops and Chance Griffith played in 100.

100 Mile is coached by a former Rider coach Dale Hladun, or Duner. Dale was in the paper last week demanding more from his goalies or else he was bringing in someone else. They are hosting the Cyclone Taylor Cup in the spring so he has to be panicked after losing 7-3 to Creston, 6-0 to Kamloops and 4-1 to the Riders in their last three games.

The Riders are now +7 and in second place with 12 points, 2 behind Kimberley who didn’t play Golden Saturday because their arena was closed. They have the old style ammonia chiller sooo

Creston and Golden have 11 the Rockies 4

The Riders won in Kamloops, it was their third game in a row and the Storm had Saturday night off. They are for real.

Friday night in the division

Fernie 3 @ Chase 4 OT

In Chase   Breckin Erichuk’s second goal in double overtime gave the Chase Heat a 4-3 OT win.
Vince Benedetto had the win in net and Hayden Wiebe and Gavin Mattey (PP) scored the other goals.

Andrew Bonham and Dylan Defosse (PP) both scored in the first and Seamus Keith tied the game for Fernie in the third to give the Riders a point and a chance for two. Ethan Fitzgerald was in the Rider net

Shots 45-29 Chase

Kimberley 5 @ Columbia Valley 2

In Invermere both Brock Palmer and Jett Saharchuk had a goal and two assists and Blake Pilon had the win in net. 
Shots 43-31 KD

Creston 3 @ Golden 4  OT

In Golden Jaden Callan’s second goal scored in double OT gave the Rockets the win. Ryan Baker had the win in net, but the game sheet wasn’t filled out when this was written. 

Josh Dalquist, and  Connor Scmmell (2) scored for Creston. 

Fernie and Creston got a point, Kimberley and Golden two Friday night, the Rockies are getting left behind...but it’s only Oct 4th.