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.