The KIJHL and Ghostriders will play this season

Friday the 13th, sit out, money, frat houses, scientists oh henry and strike a balance

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After a few uncertain months it was decided that the KIJHL and the Ghostriders will play again this season, you won’t get to watch them or anything.... but they will play.

The season will start in November on Friday the13th... 2020, what could possibly go wrong...

Anyway, teams can only allow 50 people in the building so with 40 something players along with coaches trainers a few volunteers and referees we hit 50 pretty fast. The players who sit out might really sit out...

The obvious question is Show Me the Money.... with no ticket sales advertising etc the players will have to foot the bill otherwise teams will go bankrupt.  Kamloops for one says their player fees will be nearly $10,000

The hope is that by Christmas fans will be allowed back in the rinks.

The other hope is that teams can get billets for the players in this new environment . There was even some social media talk that players could rent houses, but that would be a disaster, like a frat house without all the annoying school work. 

This could be the year of the local player... they don’t need a billet, GM’s should be nice to them, actually they should have always been nice to them, this is, after all, Jr B and should feature some locals.

Referee Dr Bonnie Henry has been making the calls on how BC will respond to Covid 19.

 

As it stands now Fernie, Kimberley, Invermere and Creston will play in one division, or as the scientists call it a cohort. Yeah I know I had to look it up too. Anyway they won’t allow five teams in the cohort so to start the season Golden will play in the Revelstoke division. 

So Dr Henry what’s safer, Golden playing in our div I mean cohort or Golden going over the Rogers Pass for half of their games.

On the other end Creston may end up in Nelson’s division for the last half of the season and Golden comes back here or something.

Anyway, Spokane because of borders and 100 Mile and Beaver Valley because of the obvious health issues have opted out for the season. I get it and I am kinda surprised more teams didn’t opt out because of money after hearing all the howling about the crossovers for all those years.

The players on the teams that went dark will get put in a dispersal draft. I personally have some questions about that and think they should be free agents, we are player advocates here. On the other hand  KIJHL Commissioner Jeff Dubois is looking out for the league plus the players and was concerned that the best players would all go to the top teams.

It could get complicated with teams charging different fees and players not wanting to move.  But the league says they will try and accommodate  both sides.

Commissioner Jeff Dubois “We tried to strike a balance that recognizes the player’s rights and still gives every team a chance to compete” Dubois' full KIJHL statement on the upcoming season is HERE

The KIJHL says October 2nd... and the usual drivel

The KIJHL Governors held their annual AGM a couple of weeks ago via some sorta video conference. The big news is that the KIJHL plans to start their season on October 2nd... we just don’t know which year, oh shut up it was a joke.

But as you probably already guessed the BC Government may have a say in that. The biggest question is do the fans have to be six feet apart or can they come to the games like they do at the rallies in the USA, otherwise known as hospital I mean normal seating.

If fans have to be unsocially distanced at 6 feet apart that would  drastically limit how many fans are allowed in the arenas.  It would make it so teams like Fernie would have to consider taking a year off until this is over.  Limited fans would be like the year in Sparwood when the team lost  around $70000.

Food for thought 

The College BCIHL  and the Alberta ACAC College sports teams have delayed their seasons until January. 

In other News 

The KI also went to 5 minutes of  3 on 3 in overtime then a shootout. Great idea that shoulda happened a few seasons ago, the coaches have learned to coach the life out of the once exciting 4 on 4. 

They also went to an electronic game sheet that will make it easier for the league to read the scribbles I mean stats and to check for ineligible players etc. I would have recommended the BC Hockey game sheet that made it impossible to put an ineligible player on the sheet. It makes the league look bad when points are taken away because a coach didn’t bother to check the HCR before putting a name up. If esports website can’t accommodate that get someone else.

And the offensive team gets to pick which dot they want the face-off at after an icing and at the start of a penalty. Great idea.

The Ghostriders have hired Joey McEwan as an assistant coach...now how we gonna tell the two coaches apart 


I had a pair of these


Just sayin....

Hope for Spokane

KIJHL season ? short schedule unpopular opinions gang up,comishe'sknife

Will there be a KIJHL season in the fall

With all the bad stuff going on right now no one can for sure answer that question. But  most leagues remain positive and say they will operate. 

Steve Hogg the GM of Summerland was quoted last week “We have full plans of having a league, but it might not get going until mid October”.

Great if you ask me, hockey and a shortened schedule, beauty. But that isn’t what the Governors wanted. I was told (before Corona) that they wanted an even longer schedule than the 49 games they played last year. 

 It is my unpopular opinion that even 49 games is too many... the volunteers get burned out. They are happy for the playoffs because the games are a little better AND because they know the end is in sight. Few will admit to that publicly, but I know it’s a fact for many. 

The Nelson Leafs are drowning in the coved sea like a few others. Read that here


Former Leaf and CNP Timberwolf Trevor Alto is the new PIJHL Commissioner... he even looks the same as he did when I met him when he was 17 in the AJHL...Will the three leagues KIJHL, PIJHL and VIJHL finally join together and gang up on BC Hockey ... united we stand divided we beg...


New KIJHL Commissioner Jeff Dubois has a somewhat less optimistic view  saying the league may not even operate let alone start on time. Read more here He was likely posturing a bit knowing the league will be applying for federal financial assistance... join the club, the BCHL is also posturing I mean asking for the same thing

But so far no league has asked the BC government for anything 

Anyway both league bosses say if a team wants to sit out a season they can do just that with no concussions I mean repercussions, there’s that word again. So things are not great.

The various leagues must be thinking, I think... 

Will people still be willing to billet  
Will the older fans want to crowd into the buildings
Will unemployed parents have the extra cash to send kids away
Will the hard hit businesses still advertise 
Will the older coaches trainers and bus drivers still help out

Speaking of bus drivers, and we just were if you were listening, one of the first cases in our area was the Rockies bus driver, I am happy to tell you that CVR Coach Wade Dubielewicz says the driver has fully recovered. A good news story if I ever heard one.


It seems that most teams are carrying on, Fernie has recruited a couple of players, Summerland hired Nick Deschaines (Trail Grand Forks) as their new HC Kimberley has scheduled their AGM etc.


Former Academy Fury player and Fernie local Dawson Hutchinson signed with the Great Falls Americans a few weeks ago. I know for sure a few different KIJHL GM’s are interested in you... so if you don’t want to go Dawson

When Fernie hosted the Cyclone Taylor Cup several years ago I had a small part in it and fully realize just how much work goes into hosting.... at the last second 100 Mile who had already put in hours and hours of off ice work lost the tournament through no fault of their own... if any team deserves some kind of stimulus package they do.


Revelstoke Grizz owner Ryan Parent is trying to open a Hockey Academy in Sicamous.  When they are at their AGM they refer to each other as “Partners" one of the partners has low attendance and I think it’s a bit of a knife in the back. Not everyone thinks that way but....

And Finally... what ever happened to the “Fast Face-off” rule, it was my favourite change but only lasted about a month. I suspect the coaches hated it and fought against it.

The Elk Valley Raiders Pee Wee Team

This was canceled by Hockey Canada read more here 

As of  3:00 PM March 12th BC Hockey’s Tier 4 Provincial Tournament is still  a go. There will be no hand shaking sharing water bottles etc and these protocols will be in use.
 
We will be getting daily results and posting them here then repost  on some community pages.

This is The Raiders Peewee hockey team














Back Row
Trevor Dumba assistant coach Blaine Trischuk, Brayden Holberton, Eric Haugo, Soren Nicol, Mark Palmer head coach, Adam Latka, Jayden Logodi, Felix Craig-Dumba, Rhys Williams, Kacie Corkle, Travis Corkle assistant coach, 

Middle Row
Austin Marasco, Owen Rybachuk, Andrew Wittington, Sawyer Samycia, Cole Tennant, 

Front Row
Aaron Halliday-Dmytriw, Seth Coward


A submitted story about the Raiders season.

The Elk Valley Raiders are off to the Peewee Tier 4 provincial championships March 14-19, 2020 in Golden

The team is comprised of 12 and 13 year old kids (07-08 birth years) from Fernie, Sparwood and Elkford. 

This is the inaugural year of the new “Elk Valley Raiders” Peewee Rep Hockey team. Years ago there was a junior B team in the Elk Valley that were named the Elk Valley Raiders. Many of the players from the original Elk Valley Raiders Junior team still reside in the Valley. 

The Raiders head coach is Mark Palmer. Mark played with the Fernie Ghostriders and his son Tyler is a goalie playing with the NAX team in Northern Alberta this year. Tyler was selected by the Spokane Chiefs in the Bantam draft and attended their camp last fall. Assistant coach Travis Corkle also played with the Jr A Fernie Ghostriders of the 1990’s. Trevor Dumba round’s out the coaching staff.

The Raiders have had a successful season so far this year going 34-15-1 and capturing the East Kootenay Championships (Banner tourney) a couple weeks ago and winning the Provincial play downs. Both of these were against a very strong Kimberley Dynamiters team. 

Other highlights this season were winning an Alberta Tier I tournament in Okotoks in Dec and a BC Tier 3 tournament in Castlegar in January.  Once again Raiders met the Dynamiters in the finals at the Castlegar tournament and defeated them in a high scoring 9-8 game. They also beat them in the round robin play on the Saturday. This tournament was a huge morale boost for the Raiders as before this they only mustered one win against the Dynamiters in six tries. 

After this tournament the Raiders dominated the Dynamiters and have confidence going into the provincials. 

The Raiders will begin play at the Provincials on Sunday, March 15 VS Revelstoke. 

The opening banquet is slated for Saturday night, March 14 and opening ceremonies will be Sunday afternoon after the Raiders first game.

Other teams the Raiders will be playing against will be Golden, Grand Forks, Prince Rupert, Langley and Whitehorse.
The finals are slated for Thursday, March 19 at 7pm. The top two teams after the round robin will advance to the finals. 
Good Luck Elk Valley Raiders 

Ghostriders are out

Fernie 0 @ Rockies 4

The Ghostriders lost their game 4-0 and their series 4-0 Tuesday night against the Columbia Valley Rockies.

Once again Bretton Park the Rockies 19 year old goalie was the Player of the Game stopping all 31 Rider shots.

Connor Davidson (3pts)  Colby Philips 2G and Zach Dovichak EN scored the goals.

The Rockies will move on to play Kimberley or Creston... but Kimberley is up 3-1 in their series after a 5-2 win Tuesday and are headed back to Kimberley Thursday.

In other news

100 Mile won 3-0 vs Chase and now lead 3-1
Beaver Valley won 4-1 in Castlegar and win 4-0
Kelowna wins 6-1 in North Oak and lead 3-1
Princeton wins 5-4 in Summerland and win 4-0
Revelstoke wins 2-1 in Kamloops and wins 4-0
Nelson wins 3-0 in Spokane and wins 4-0

Riders down 3-0 and the other scores

Fernie 3 @ Columbia Valley 4

In Invermere 
The Columbia Valley Rockies won 4-3 Monday night and now have a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Fernie Ghostriders.

The Rockies led 2-1 after the first period on goals by Colby Phillips and Eric Lloyd.

In the second Hunter Rambo (PP) and Owen Hughes scored and the Rockies had a 4-2 lead.

Fernie's Greg Susinski scored the only goal in the third and the Rockies held on for a 4-3 win and 3-0 series lead. 

Jordan Kromm (PP) and Nolan Steer scored the other Rider goals and Brett Balas was in net.

Rockies goalie Bretton Park was the CVR player of the game stopping 31 of 34 shots. Nolan Steer with a G and an A was the Rider POG

Fernie went 1-8 and the Rockies went 1-6 on the power play.
Shots 34-33 Fernie
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In Creston the Dynamiters won 3-1  and now have a 2-1 series lead over the T-Cats.

Jett Saharchuk scored two goals and Lucas Chilton scored the other goal. Adam Andersen got the win in net.

Vin Jackson scored for the CTC and Jaden Little was in net.

Chase won 4-2 in 100 Mile - 100 leads 2-1
Revelstoke won 3-1 in Kamloops- Revy leads 3-0
Princeton won 3-1 in Summerland and lead 3-0
Nelson wins 6-5 in Spokane and lead 3-0
Beaver Valley wins 3-2 in OT in Castlegar and lead 3-0

Riders down 2-0 and all the other scores

Columbia Valley 3 @ Fernie 1

The Columbia Valley Rockies’ Bretton Park stopped 41 of 42 shots and Erik Lloyd, Tristan Lambert PP and Kyle Lawrence scored the CVR goals and the Rockies now lead the series 2-0 heading back to Invermere on Monday night.

The Riders were out of it for a while but seemed to wake up part way into the second period firing 19 shots at Park but he stoned them. In the third the only Rider goal was off a huge blunder by one of the Rockies who passed the puck out from behind his net right on the tape of Alaister Standen’s stick that was stationed in the slot.

The star of the game was 19 year old Bretton Park who made several enormous saves, he was even better than he was on Friday night.

The shots 42-27 Fernie, and the power plays were  CVR 1-4 FG 0-4

Fernie’s Ethan Fitzgerald was in net Saturday and Brett Balas was in net Friday.

In other news

Kimberley outshot Creston 41-15 and won 4-0 tying their series up at 1-1 Adam Anderson had the shutout.

Kelowna defeated North Oak 3-1- series is at 1-1

Princeton won 4-2 vs Summerland- they lead 2-0

Revelstoke won 5-2 vs Kamloops- they lead 2-0

100 Mile wins 1-0 in Chase - they lead 2-0

Nelson wins 6-1 vs Spokane -they lead 2-0

Beaver Valley wins 6-3 vs Castlegar- they lead 2-0

Friday night massacre ?

The Fernie Ghostriders lost 4-3 to the Columbia Valley Rockies in game one of the playoffs.

The Riders had a 1-0 lead on an Alaister Standen goal in the first but got behind 3-1 in the second before fighting  back  to tie the game 3-3 when Levi Young and Greg Susinski scored power play goals.
 In the third the Rockies just plain out worked the Riders and defenceman Greg Parker scored the game winner with just 1:21 left on the clock giving the Rockies a 4-3 lead that they held on to for a game one win.

In a nutshell, the Riders had  enough chances to win the game in the first 40 minutes but Bretton Park only allowed three and gave the Rockies the chance to win and they took it. 

Gavin Fleck had a goal and an assist, Colby Phillips and Ben Lake   scored the other CVR goals. 

The Rockies played a good road game and the Riders missed star F Seamus Keith who is suspended one more game for a check to the head last Saturday. Rider HC Jeff Wagner was also missing due to suspension but will be back Saturday. 

The two referees called a few things that would not have been called in a one referee system game. The referees did not determine the outcome of the game.

In other news

In Kimberley former Rider goalie Jaden Little and his Creston Thunder Cats defeated Kimberley 3-2 in OT.  Corbin Cockerill scored at 4:26 for the win. Brock Palmer was held to 1 goal.
Creston’s Ben Kruse and Connor Scmmell scored the other goals.

North Oak won 3-2 in Kelowna
Princeton won 7-3 vs Summerland
Revelstoke won 6-0 vs Kamloops
100 Mile won 5-2 in Chase
Beaver Valley won 3-2 vs Castlegar 
Nelson won 4-1 vs Spokane

Riders play the CVR, colouring books crayons drama queens not stupid and the usual drivel

Lots of odds and ends to cover before the playoffs, so we’ll try and keep each point short.

1/The Ghostriders finished up in second with a 33-11(2 ties-2 OT losses)  record and will now play the third place Columbia Valley Rockies in the first round of the P/O's. 

2/ Kimberley 40-6- with 3 OT losses play Creston... the inevitable Fernie -Kimberley will happen in two weeks...bet on it

3/ After years of stupidity the KIJHL will reward the first + second place teams with playoff opening weekend games starting Friday instead of Tuesday...finally for Christ’s sake this is a no brainer.

4/ The Riders best D-man Greg Susinski got a very questionable misconduct Saturday for trying not to fight in the third but when the game went into OT Greg came back and scored his second goal of the game for a 6-5 win... it was his 4th GWG- Greg signed a College Commitment 


5/ Guess who wasn’t on the bench to see it... his coach who got a game misconduct and could miss the first playoff game.

6/ Susinski should win the Division’s best D-man award by a country mile IMO but may not be liked by some coach voters and Creston’s Andrew Clark could get some love.

7/ The KIJHL drama queens will hand out the aforementioned awards during the playoffs... they can’t just post the list then hand them out at the games like every other league... some years the list wasn’t posted until after the season was over... you know when the interest was at a fever pitch... but I think they will do better this year.

8/ Seamus Keith got 5 for fighting and a 5 minute match for head contact Saturday... he could miss the first three P/O games. Keith scored the most Rider goals this year, 26 had 8 game winners  and is the  Rookie of the Year if you ask me... 148 PIM big strong fast plus is a wild card... ya I know that's not a valued trait in this new hockey.


8/ Dylan Defosse had the most points with 60, click here for all the Rider scoring stats

9/ Any suspensions and scoring stats we just talked about could change when the chisels come out on Monday...

10/ 100 Mile’s Eric Smith wins the coveted KIJHL colouring book this year with 226 penalty minutes and the Wranglers as a team win a nice set of crayons for their league leading 1568 PIM... honourable mention to Sicamous with 1529. Fernie had 1077 and Kimberley a paltry 800...or is that poultry...I fondly remember the days when it took 3000+ to win the crayons

11/ The series everyone except the league VP’s and referees want’s to see will happen... Nelson will have home ice vs Spokane
I love this Tweet


12/ The Spokane - Nelson rivalry last year probably inspired this... Rider News didn’t help much either


13/ The season is over and I can’t remember even one Fernie Academy Fury player get called up as an AP... wasn’t that part of their recruitment package

14/Beaver Valley plays Castlegar and Nelson Spokane the Riders would have home ice in the third round if they got past Kimbo.

Riders tie and win and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders will likely play Columbia Valley in the first round of the playoffs starting around February 25th in Fernie. Kimberley will get Creston. Math students will claim that with a 49 game schedule this could change... but we got kicked out of Sesame Street before the arithmetic episodes. 



The Ghostriders played two games last week they tied Grand Forks who are fighting Castlegar for their playoff lives on Thursday 4-4. Dylan Defosse had 2 goals and Greg Susinski had 3 assists. 
And won 5-3 in Castlegar Friday  smooth Dman Dan Lindeman scored the game winner in the 3rd and Alaister Standen had 2G along with an assist

Notes

After they played Grand Forks it was Kimberley’s turn, the KD won 7-1 but had this at 3:43 in the third... They came to the rescue of Brock Palmer as you can see here




From Twitter

Well we still don’t know what the Corona Virus will mean here in Canada but it’s flu season anyway so it’s a good preventative measure... no sharing water bottles either you guys

Nelson’s Coach Mario DiBella was suspended for a few games after he swung a stick at some fans behind his bench in Grand Forks... I really disagree with that one, keep the fans away and let the coaches coach...

It snowed the other day 


A couple of weeks ago we told you about how the City of Fernie was going after the local kids by really jackin up the rates for the arena users and now this week they announced their new snow removal policy that will see the windrows removed a day or so later effectively trapping our seniors who aren’t strong enough to dig their way out in their homes. Go after the low hanging fruit first, your children and shut-ins... who’s next

I know you want me to comment on this... but not yet
 

And finally.... On January 27th the Golden Rockets fired their head coach Jeremy Blumes. The Rockets are out of a playoff spot and would need a miracle to get in after being hobbled in December when they lost their arena for more than a month and had to play out of Cranbrook.  We have heard unconfirmed reports that Blumes was at odds with the Rockets President, well I’m sure glad that doesn't  happen around h... oh wait a minute.

Riders go 2-1 COF Celebrates Minor Hockey Week and a Little drivel

Tuesday January 21st the Ghostriders went into Kimberley and lost 7-2 to the Nitro’s. 

 Kimberley scored 1 in the first  3 in the second and 3 in the third for a convincing home ice win.

KIJHL scoring leader Brock Palmer had two goals and an assist and McDowell and Piva also had three point nights. Adam Anderson had the win in net.

Fernie goals were off the sticks on Owen Titus and Gavin Lawrie while  Brett Balas took the loss in net.
508 Fans at the game.
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On Friday night in Fernie Ethan Fitzgerald and his Riders turned the tables on Kimberley with a hard fought 3-2 win. Fernie had period leads of  1-0 and 3-1 then held on in the third.

Fitzgerald faced 52 shots and was a Player of the Game. Seamus Keith scored in the first Nolan Steer (3pts) and Gavin Lawrie scored the Rider goals in the second. Harrison Risdon scored for Kimberley in the second and Brock Palmer got the Nitros within one in the third but Fitzgerald shut the door. The shots ended up 52-26 for the KD. 
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On Saturday a relaxed Rider team easily bounced the last place Golden Rockets 5-2. Johnny Elias scored 2 nice goals  in the first and Alaister Standen, Jordon Kromm and Greg Susinski scored the other goals while Brett Balas had the win in  net. The Rockets had a few really good chances in the second but Balas made some great stops, the goal they scored in the second was only after he heroically stopped three or four in a row before they finally got him out of position.
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Notes
The Riders had 951 fans Friday, on Tuesday in Kimberley they had 508... how absolutely  stupid is it WASTING weekday games on these two teams when both of em get around 1000 on weekend's. Fernie had a Tuesday game back in September. The schedule will be very important next year because....

The City of Fernie celebrated Minor Hockey Week (January 19-25) with a big gala affair meeting where they told  FMH and everyone else that they intend to really jack up the rink rates next year  for all the users. I don’t know about MH but it will mean something like $20,000 for the Ghostriders... so if you can price the Riders and a few other tenants out of the building you won’t have to needlessly build a new arena and rec complex....

Wellcome to the Jungle... you don’t see hardly any fighting anymore but if your going do it, pick a D man... Dylan Nevil did that Friday when he fought KD Noah Danforth... never hurts to shorten up Kimbo's back end a bit.

Heartwarming moment, almost as heartwarming as Green Day at the NHL All Star Game... Jordon Kromm hammered a player into the glass Saturday then gave his his father Brent who was just inches away on the other side of the glass a huge smile. You can’t make this stuff up.

Creston picked up former Fernie goalie Jaden Little who was released at the deadline. Little was in Fernie for one game vs Castlegar a 7-4 win in November then went back to Jr A. 
Little won his first game with Creston Friday 3-1 vs the visiting Rockies then won 6-5 over Kimberley Saturday... could Creston with a Little help work their way into third place and a date with the Riders in the first round.... will Carson Small decide he wants to play again....wouldn’t  that make for an interesting series. Creston D better take better care of this goalie

The KI has a 49 game schedule- notice the games in hand

Riders win Friday... Hunters crushed no brawl new hockey and hardly any drivel

Seamus Keith scored what would turn out to be the game winning goal (and probably the nicest goal)  in the Riders 6-2 win over the struggling Creston Thunder Cats Friday night in Fernie.

Creston actually outshot Fernie in that game 56-44 but, although he was good, new goalie Brett Balas didn’t have to stand on his head or anything. The Riders usually do a pretty good job of limiting  Grade A chances against but do allow their share of low % shots. 

Balas was not picked as a player of the game probably due to the above paragraph. Hunter Maximnuk (1G1A) was, he was  traded for Cody Quinton a couple of weeks ago. Maximnuk’s on ice body language says he’s happy to be in Fernie and he plays like it. A different type of player than Quinton who scored 2G Saturday in Castlegar and was a player of the game there. A good deal if you ask me but who would...

One of the Riders absolutely crushed former Rider but now Creston goalie Justin Faiella to the ice during a scrum in front of the net. First I looked for the ref but he was on the other side of all the players so didn’t get a good look, then I looked for Creston to respond to what should have been a line brawl... but nothing. I like this new hockey less and less with each passing game.

All the scoring below



The Riders were without their top scorer Dylan Defosse  who served his final game of a 3 game suspension from the Sicamous debacle. Defosse (99) leads the goal scoring race with 19G followed closely by Jordon Kromm (99) with 18 and Seamus Keith the 18 year old with 17. Can the rookie win the race... 

The D -can  rookie Aaron Hladiuk with 26 points outpoint Greg Susinski (99) 27 points and Sawan Gill 21 pts.

Creston’s Carson Small was their top scorer... he decided to go home. Creston has a few new deadline players who look pretty good, they just don’t have quite enough of them...Small and his 24 goals would have made a difference

The Riders move on to a home and home with Kimberley and then play Golden next weekend. 

And finally, unless a complete meltdown by Fernie or Kimberley, the Riders will not catch Kimberley and no one will catch Fernie for second. 

But the race for third and fourth is alive and well, notice the games played. The KIJHL has a 49 game schedule and the playoffs will likely start on February 25th give or take a day or so.

Credit Golden's players for battling back from no home ice for several weeks and staying in the PO race... something that we haven’t had for a few years... normally by Christmas four teams get a Xmas present knowing they are in.

Riders pass a test Saturday

The Ghostriders passed a big test and answered a couple of questions Saturday night in Revelstoke.

First of all they won 4-1 against a top team from the other side of the KIJHL and their new goaltender Brett Balas who replaced Chance Griffith at the deadline stopped 49 of 50 shots for his first win with his new team.  

Also Hunter Maximnuk scored his first Rider goal, Maximnuk came from Castlegar for the playing rights of Cody Quinton .

This year unlike last year the Riders are legitimate contenders to win the KIJHL... and I think they still have one more card

Chance Griffith went to Carrot River wherever that is at the deadline. It is a reality of junior hockey... and our good friends at Hockey Canada agree... I think anyway

Riders win in Sicamous and some excellent reaction you’ll wanna read

The Ghostriders ran up the score in a controversial 8-2 game on the road in Sicamous Friday night.

Seamus Keith scored 3 goals and had an assist, Jordon Kromm 2 goals and an assist Johnny Elias, Gavin Lawrie and Aaron Hladiuk scored the other goals... this is all from the on line game summary Saturday AM Jan 11, BC- Before Chisels

So far Dylan Defosse has a 3 game suspension but Andrew Berkelaar’s Gross was not on the KI site. You should be able to figure out what the gross was for by the end of this post.

The Riders are in Revelstoke Saturday night in what will be a benchmark (but shorthanded)  game against the first place Grizz.  It is on the Drive 99.1 radio

The controversy as always was courtesy of both teams but from the various media feeds it looks like the Riders were pretty happy about beating the last place Eagles. Campbell is the Eagles PxP guy

An anonymous comment... but if the shoe fits 

Sicamous has 4 guys with over 100 pims and the team total is 987 pims. This shit show was bound to happen, it just happened to be us...  

Well it certainly was a “shit show” & neither team was innocent but those Fernie guys were down right rude! If you weren’t there don’t try to tell me what was being said everyone in the stands could hear it! #notwhatexpectedfromthemorus

Well now we know what the Gross was for....

The revised version of the PIM

Fernie wins two and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders won both home games this weekend, 3-2 in OT vs Golden and 3-1 against Castlegar.

Friday the Riders were down 2-0 but scored two in the third then Johnny Elias scored the overtime game winner ... but if they ever figure out how to finish even half of their breakaways penalty shots and other good scoring chances these games won’t go into OT. 

Fernie goalie Ethan Fitzgerald was in net for both games this week and last week vs Kimberley.  For his efforts Fitzgerald was named as one of three KIJHL Players of the Week .




Ryan Baker was in the Rocket net Friday and made several great stops and helped earn the GR at least a point. On Saturday Baker stopped 43 of 44 and  Jaden Callan scored in OT to give the Rockets a 2-1 win over Kimberley in Cranbrook.  

Cranbrook was fairly good for the Rockets, they had wins against Fernie 4-2 and Kimberley 2-1 but overall it probably cost them a playoff spot and a ton of money...



Seamus Kieth was hit by an unseen check to the head Friday and didn’t play Saturday... hope that wasn't one of the only four concussions BC Hockey says happen in the Province every year...

On Saturday Fernie defeated Castlegar who are in a fight for their playoff lives with Grand Forks by a 3-1 score. Both Golden and Castlegar are big on finishing their checks and that helped them compete and throw a little fear into the Fernie faithful. 

On Saturday Dylan Defosse scored all 3 goals but was credited with 4 goals on the on line game sheet even though only three goals were entered on the sheet. Tell me again why the league keeps on using esports. As a former webmaster I have a whole host of reasons to get rid of em... several other web masters round the league agree as well.



Thanks for the video Greg... At the end of the Rebel game they stole Fitzgerald’s water bottle  I really like this kinda stuff... discipline... oh shut up

 You can see the video here

pic.twitter.com/Wujjm5CWTV@suski99) January 5, 2020

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4:35 PM - Jan 5, 2020

Notebook

A few fans thought that Golden’s Colton Hutchinson was a Fernie local... Colton is from Calgary, the player they were thinking of is Dawson Hutchinson, he is playing with the Fernie Academy Fury this year. The shorthanded Riders probably would have used him as an AP but the Fury were in some sort of tournament 100’s of miles away.

Really starting to notice #21 Carson Cecconi  lately, he’s a former Fury player... and he is a hostile witness, the more the merrier... also fits the bill... Dylan Nevil has been out for weeks but played both games this weekend.

Looks like Connor Nolan is no longer with the FG and is in the SJHL with Melville, got someone else or shoulda kept Backhouse?

Fernie is at 22 now so have room for one more player...the trade deadline looms ever closer Jan 10

On Sunday the Rockies won 5-2 in Nelson, the Leafs  were assessed  five check to the head penalties and a 5 minute check from behind major
 Anyway it brought the Rockies a little closer to Fernie in the standings



100 Mile acquired Khale Skinner’s rights from the Rockies, he promptly went out and got a 6 game match. He’ll be back shortly but Bruin Josh Garlough-Bell who threw a puck at a linesman in Spokane last weekend won’t be. The accumulating check to the head penalties are also starting to show up now.



Congratulations to Canada’s juniors on their terrific comeback win in the Gold Medal Game. Next year the tournament will be in Edmonton and Red Deer. How much do they pay the Hockey Canada staff anyway


 Only in Canada you say