Rider News Dec 18/22 extra time--council love-touchy feely-Christmas present-good news and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders only played one game last weekend and that ended up a 5-4 overtime loss in Creston .

The Goal scorers were Jack Lambert (Jackson- Sinclair) Vin Jackson (Lambert - Haggerty) Andrew Karam (Fitzgerald) and  Andrew Kennedy (Fitzgerald) with Aiden Kruhlak in net.

Game notes

With about seven minutes left in the game defenceman  Andrew Kennedy walked through the whole Creston team and scored the 4-3 go ahead goal. Would have been a great ending for the D-man’s first goal except the Riders let Creston back in it just 35 seconds later then lost in OT.

Another extra time (watching too much soccer) loss this season, so far five games in overtime and two in shootouts. Those seven points left under Scrooge's Christmas tree have cost the Riders a chance at first place. Well they still have a chance… but it’s smaller than the love the previous City Council had for the hockey team. 

Jack Lambert’s goal was his first as a Rider since coming here from the MJHL’s Niverville Nighthawks December 2nd.

The Riders got AC Aaron Conlon back on the bench now that he has finished all his new touchy feely coaching clinics. He will be a great help to Coach Valin along with Mike Anderson during the games. You can do a lot of coaching mid game if you have the time.

Round’ the League

Last place Creston also won on Saturday by defeating Beaver Valley 6-4 and are now just one point behind the Riders.

But it's the holiday season Rider fans and your Christmas present is... well because Spokane is not in the league again this season, what ever team has the least  amount of points between our division and the Murdoch division will miss the playoffs, and Castlegar is behind the Riders by 14 points with 13 games left. It would take a catastrophic eighteen wheeler plowing down the ski hill to miss now.

 

A little good news. The Junior A leagues were told by Hockey Canada to start wearing cages on December 15th. They said no way and something that rhymes with truck ? If there was ever a time to defeat the beleaguered HC it’s now.

And finally, Merry Christmas to all the readers along with my friends at Hockey Canada and the league office… Hey, I’m still waitin for my Christmas Cards.

Games pie in the face guitarist comic books and zoo keepers

The Ghostriders played two games last weekend, they lost 4-3 in overtime in Kimberley then on Teddy Bear Toss night against the Revelstoke Grizzlies they won 6-2.

 

In Kimberley the Riders were down 3-2 in the third but got a late power play and in the last minute of the game Scott Sinclair scored giving the Riders at least a point and a chance for two, but Kimberley’s Cam Reid scored 41seconds into the overtime giving them the win.

The old saying A tie is as good as a win on the road applies here.

 

On Saturday in Fernie the Riders scored early in the first and held period leads of 2-0, 4-1 and finished up with a 6-2 win against Revelstoke.

 

Game notes

Jack Karpyshyn scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal Saturday just two minutes into the game, completely surprising Owen Albers who had 3 shutouts in his first 10 Grizzly games and probably thought... 

Liam Fitzgerald scored his first goal as a Rider in Kimberley and did all the leg work on Gaege Johnson’s short handed goal Saturday. 

Fitzgerald who was in Revelstoke got to deliver  a  pie in the face to GM Ryan Parent who punted  him down the road in November. Nice word -smithing eh. 

Top scorers Ethan MacDuff and Kort Kissinger started scoring again as well and had three points each. Aiden Kruhlak, from Sherwood Park, was in net for both games last weekend and seems to have taken the number one spot.

 

What I didn’t think I would see… Six different players scored Saturday against Revelstoke who came into town as the first overall team in the league with the lowest goals against as well. To me it was the best team effort I’ve seen this season. Ebouliant Ty Valin “We had good buy in”. 

 

What you don’t usually see… A Head Coach coaching the defence. Coach Valin was on that side of the bench last weekend and his players responded with three points against two top teams, and D-man Scott Sinclair scored three goals.  “ Our defence needed some attention” said Ty Valin. That’s coach code for we’ve had too many turnovers lately.

Round the League'

 

If you were wondering about last week’s story on Golden’s lead guitarist Levi Hall, well his video came out and although it looked like he was playing an instrument… it wasn’t a guitar and the music critics gave him a 3 game suspension.

Golden and Kimberley exchanged misconducts and head shots etc last Saturday and the result was Nitro Trey Stephenson got a match and was suspended indefinitely. 

We’ve seen Golden a few times, and they are  undisciplined but win lots of games and with 818 minutes they lead the league in PIM.

Their fans must love em. Anyway, if they keep it up they could win the KiJHL colouring book at the end of the year.  If I were a bettin man I’d say Stephenson was probably retaliating for something earlier in the game.  

Should the KiJHL start eaten at the betting trough.. everyone else is...just sayin 

Big day for the zoo keepers at Hockey Canada Thursday Dec 15, that’s the deadline for Jr A teams to start wearing cages... I’m hearing they're not going to just walk into their cages without a ringmaster and a whip. HC could be vulnerable right now... maybe they have a chance

Big game for Fernie and Creston Friday

 

The Ghostriders play in Creston Friday then go home for Christmas. They return to play Kimberley December 28th in Fernie.

Have a safe and Merry Christmas everyone, even my fans at the KiJHL office.

 

Rider News- Guitars Cadillac's & Hillbilly Music and the usual drivel

On Friday in Golden the Ghostriders were losing 2-0 but in the third period they outshot the Rockets 19-2, scored two goals and got the game into overtime. In the OT and shootout they had great chances but couldn’t score and Golden won 3-2 on Dominic Fiorentino’s second goal of the game.

Fernie goals were off the sticks of Scott Sinclair (Slobodian-Lambert) and Cole Fournier (Karam-Karpyshyn) with Aiden Kruhlak in net.

On Saturday in Fernie the Ghostriders pounced on the Rockets and had leads of 3-2,  5-2 and finished up with a 7-3 win.

Kort Kisinger, Gaege Johnson, Jack Karpyshyn, Taylor Haggerty, Andrew Karam and Vin Jackson (2) scored the goals and Aiden Kruhlak had the win in net.

Notes from Levi Hall's Guitar's

The star of the show in Golden was Levi Hall who is reportedly Glenn Hall’s grandson. Hall stopped a barrage of grade A chances and all four of the shootout attempts. But after his final save he made a gesture to the Rider’s bench and was given a game misconduct and one game suspension. The player claimed he was just simulating playing a guitar, well maybe he was… but he was playin the Rodeo Song

Cadillacs 

Odd to see the Riders top scorer  Ethan MacDuff get shutout last weekend, especially on a pad your stats night like last Saturday. It goes to show how much the five new players (Aiden Kruhlak, Andrew Karam, Jack Lambert, Liam Fitzgerald and Vin Jackson) mean to Fernie’s overall speed and skill level. Now a gunslinger can miss a few bad guys and they can still get points. 

Hillbilly Music

Lots of penalties, cheap shots, fights and even an instigator, we used to call it team building .

Josh Prebushewski is back on the ice after getting hurt October 21st. He stopped a particularly hard shot with his shoulder late in the Saturday game, we hope he’s ok, the Riders need all the defensemen they can get.

 D man Scott Sinclair had a goal and three assists last weekend and 6 points in his last three games. The Captain’s game is back on track.

 

News flash

The Riders scored some goals on breakaways Saturday. Gaege Johnson got one shorthanded and the game winner by Taylor Haggerty made him feel so good he got into a fight. They didn’t score on all of them but maybe the door is starting to open.

The Riders play the sort of first place Columbia Valley Rockies here in Fernie Tuesday December 6th then on Friday they are in Kimberley and on Saturday Dec 10th  they play Revelstoke (scratch that date on your refrigerator’s door) cause it’s Teddy Bear Toss night

Round' the League

Creston beat the Rockies 7-6 Friday then the Rockies hammered them 9-1 in Invermere Saturday. Kimberley won 5-3 in Castlegar virtually assuring all our division playoff spots. More on this in the coming weeks. 

 

Ghostrider News and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders got out of their slump by winning  both of their games last weekend, 6-4 in Golden and 5-0 at home against Dale Hladun and his 100 Mile House Wranglers.

You can see how important the four points were here.

In Golden the Rockets had period leads of 2-1 and 4-2 after the second period and the game seemed almost out of reach. But early in the third Jack Karpyshyn and Ethan MacDuff (Haggerty) scored goals a minute apart and tied the game at four.

Five minutes later Taylor Haggerty (MacDuff- Karpyshyn) scored what would turn out to be the game winner on the power play then Jack Karpyshyn put one in the empty net for a much needed 6-4 road win.

Kort Kisinger (Fournier- Fisher) and Michele Romeo (Johnson-Fisher) scored the other goals and new goalie Aiden Kruhlak got his first start and win in net.

In Fernie the Riders overwhelmed the 100 Mile House Wranglers, scoring early and often and the 700 fans (500 of em packed blubbering in the beer section) were delighted.

Jack Karpyshyn (Haggerty- Jackson) Scott Sinclair (Jackson-Karpyshyn) Kort Kisinger (Fournier -Sinclair) Taylor Haggerty (Jackson- Cardinal) and Ethan MacDuff (Romeo) scored goals and Aiden Kruhlak got the shutout in net. 

A few notes

It was nice to see the Riders power play get the game winning goal in the third period. I have seen the opposite happen way too many times this year. 

Vin Jackson had three assists vs 100 Mile and looks like a good fast skilled player. Someone else must think the same thing, he was wearing an A on his jersey.

 

Jack Karpyshyn (who was in Kimberley last year) had 7 points in his last three games.

 

Ethan MacDuff had 6 and Taylor Haggerty scored twice and had two assists after missing time and the Prospect’s game because of an illness. 

The Riders scored 11 goals in two games, a big deal for a team that has been goal challenged so far this year.  

Golden is the top scoring team in the league with 98 goals, Fernie has 69 

Malachai Peigan finished his 3 game suspension for a staged fight. Glad they don’t suspend for taunting the crowd after a fight like they used to, enough of the suspensions already...just sayin.

Fernie and Golden have a home and home next weekend, Fernie’s home game is  Saturday.

Two important dates are coming up, December 1st is cutdown day where teams have to get down to 23 players and on December 15th all the Canadian junior A teams will have to wear full cages. Read that here

The BCHL has opted out of the CJHL and has hopes of joining the cage-less American USHL. But they are not there yet... I also hear some JrA teams will try and defy the once mighty but now beleaguered  Hockey Canada. Nice distraction by HC. 

If there was ever a time to defeat HC now is the time. Funny how they don’t have the guts to demand the CHL (WHL OHL and QMJHL) wear their zoo cages.

Rider News Nov 20/22

The Ghostriders only had game last week, it was a 5-3 loss to the Nelson Leafs. 

The Riders had a pretty good start in that game and were leading 2-1 after the second period but in the third, in a game that was not even close to being considered rough, a Santa-clause parade of penalties ensued and Leaf Joe Davidson scored two power play goals. The Riders made it close at 4-3 but an empty net goal ended it.

Game Notes

 Colton Hanson was in net and Ethan MacDuff had a goal and two assists. Jack Karpyshyn had a goal and an assist and Andrew Karam scored a goal in his first game with Fernie.

 Karam looks like a pretty good pickup who can skate pass and make smart plays. If Vin Jackson can do the same the team will be better, more on these two guys in a minute.

Trigger happy

 Game misconducts were on sale Saturday night in Fernie. Kort Kisinger put a misconduct and 2 game misconducts in his shopping cart and Michele Romeo and Jack Karpyshyn each got the last ones off the shelf. Who says the stores are running out of stuff. Anyway...If nothing changes Karpyshyn and Kisinger will sit out the next game. 

 Team News

 When you are fighting for your playoff lives and not winning games you have to try drastic measures and that’s what Ghostrider GM Ty Valin did last week. Valin moved his star forward Dayton Nelson (03) to Princeton for forwards Vin Jackson (02) and Andrew Karam (03).

You have to give good to get good and Nelson was a good one, he was the Riders top goal scorer last season and got 3 goals in his first PP game.  The Posse are first in points and goals scored in their division so Nelson may be a good fit… unlike the Castlegar story below.

The Riders also moved goalie Reed McLennan to Grand Forks  to make room for eighteen year old goalie Aiden Kruhlak from Sherwood Park Alberta who was playing Jr A in Drayton Valley.

And they moved Jacob Vanlerberg and Sean Jacobs for the ubiquitous future consideration$.

That should get them (just like the other teams are doing) down to 21 players for the December 1st 23 player cutdown date and the possibility of scoring a couple of late JrA cuts.

League News

Fernie’s Taylor Haggerty made the KIJHL- PIJHL Prospects team but an illness kept him out of the lineup. So far two players are out because of doctor stuff.

Castlegar President Mike Johnston “He wasn’t a good fit for the organization” The first midseason coaching casualty was Castlegar’s Arnie Caplan who was replaced by Nick Headrick, a former Rebel player and assistant coach. FYI “A good fit” is friendly hockey code for… Well, we fired him!

Creston fought and lost 6-3 in Grand Forks Friday, when it was over the Bruins had four players suspended for a total of 12 games and Creston had two guy’s total 8. F it Let’s just kick everyone out

Ghostrider News Nov 14th

The Ghostriders played a three game home stand last weekend, they lost 6-4 to the Rockies rebounded back with a 7-3 win over the Nitehawks Saturday then lost 7-0 to Grand Forks Sunday  

The standings after the weekend

On Friday against the first place Rockies the Riders got off to a great start and had a 2-1ead on a pair of Ethan MacDuff goals but by the end of the second period they were losing 3-2.

 In the third the Rockies made it 4-2 but Cole Fournier and Kort Kisinger scored two quick goals and tied the game. 

Then the wheels fell off and the Rockies’ scored twice and Anthony Domina’s second goal of the game proved to be the game winner.

On Saturday against the Nitehawks the game was tied at three after two periods but in the third the Riders scored four times and earned a much needed 7-3 win. Colton Hanson was in net and recently converted from forward D man RylanCardinal scored two goals, his first two of the season and the second one was the game winner. Scott Sinclair, Dayton Nelson, Ethan MacDuff, Kaden Slobodian and Jack Karpyshyn each added singles.  

On Sunday with the flu running through the team they were down to sixteen skaters including sixteen year old AP Josh Kallies,   and many of them were sick. They were no match for the Bruins.

Kallies, from Sparwood, has been practicing and playing games with the Riders in the hopes that he will develop and play a regular shift next season. 

Around the League

With 26 points FGR Ethan MacDuff is third in league scoring. Golden’s Jordan Lario is first with 35 and Creston’s Luke Chakrabrti is second with 29, all three have aged well with their teams in the KIJHL. 

The Revelstoke Grizzlies who will play here in Fernie December 10th lead the league in points with 29, Grand Forks is next with 28  Princeton has 27 while Kimberley and the Rockies each have 26.

Grand Forks Golden and Princeton are showing everyone that KI teams can make big gains after poor seasons with good summer recruiting ... even in somewhat remote locations.

Golden and Grand Forks have scored the most goals with 79. Revelstoke who has the most points has 61. 

Princeton has allowed the least goals at 30 the next closest is Revelstoke with 39.

Fernie played their Sunday game at 5:00. This was a first, usually they play at 7:30. Visiting teams were always pissed at the late time. Coach Valin decided to change to a more friendly time after playing a late Sunday game in Osoyoos and getting home at 7 AM. IMO the league should mandate early Sunday games. 

Kamloops played the Rockies last Friday and the game was tied 1-1 with just a minute left in the third  when an ammonia alarm went off and the arena was evacuated. Kamloops went on to play in Creston Saturday where they won 5-4 in OT then on their way home Sunday they stopped in Invermere and played the last minute of Friday’s game. The Storm eventually won 2-1 in a shoot out. 

Word is the League paid the expenses to finish the game. Very questionable if you ask me that we (the teams who’s players pay to play) should pay for something that could have settled with just calling it a tie. After all the league website has a tie column.

And Finally... the North Bay Trappers, a AAA U 18 team were traveling in a bus when it caught fire and burned, they lost all their equipment and belongings in the fire. Read about that here

Game Day Nov 13 vs Grand Forks

The Fernie Ghostriders organization welcomes the all players parents to our  Family Weekend where we will play three games featuring three of the top KIJHL teams.

Scored his first two goals last night his second was the game winner vs Beaver Valley

Tonight’s Game (Sunday Nov 13 at 5:00)

Tonight we host the first place Grand Forks Border Bruins, it will be the final game of our three game home stand.

The Ghostriders played in Grand Forks last weekend and lost 4-1 so will be out for revenge tonight.

The Bruins are in first place in the Neil Murdoch Division with 25 points.

Grand Forks is easily the most improved team in the KIJHL this year after finishing the season last year with just 13 points and out of the playoffs.

Their top scorer is Cody Laybolt with 23 points and their Head Coach is Dave Hnatiuk.

The Bruins will be on game three of their road trip through the Kootenay’s. So far they lost 6-0 in Kimberley and 4-3 in a shootout in Golden.

League News

The Rockies- Kamloops game in Invermere was stopped in the last minute of play Friday because  an ammonia alarm went off. Anyway that 1-1 game will restart at 2:40 Rockies’ time today. Why they don’t just give each team a point and save the money is a question only the league can answer. 

The KIJHL and PIJHL  will be hosting a Top Prospects game on Tuesday November 22 in Chilliwack BC . This game will feature the KIJHL and PIJHL top prospects. Ghostrider Head Coach Ty Valin, Trainer Nicholle Auger and forward Taylor Haggerty will all be part of that team.

Next Home Game is Saturday November 19th against Nelson.

Game Day Saturday November 12 vs BV

The Fernie Ghostriders organization welcomes the all players parents to our  Family Weekend where we will play three games featuring three of the top KIJHL teams.

The players after the Remembrance Day Parade

 

Tonight’s Game is against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks. 

The Hawks are in second place in the Neil Murdoch Division but within striking distance of the first place Grand Forks Border Bruins who lost 6-0 in Kimberley last night and are here in Fernie Sunday at the special time of 5:00.

The Nitehawks have always iced a powerful team and have won the KIJHL Championship eight times and four of those times they went on to win the Cyclone Taylor Cup.

League News

The KIJHL will be hosting a Top Prospects game on Tuesday November 22 in Chilliwack BC . This game will feature both the KIJHL and PIJHL top prospects. Ghostrider Head Coach Ty Valin, Trainer Nicholle Auger and forward Taylor Haggerty will all be part of that team.

In other news the Friday game between the Rockies and Kamloops was suspended because  an ammonia alarm went off in the Invermere arena. No word on when the arena will be open again.

The Ghostriders next home game is tomorrow Sunday at the special time of 5:00 against the Grand Forks Border Bruins.

Game Day Thursday Nov 10/22

The Fernie Ghostriders organization welcomes the all players parents to our  Family Weekend where we will play three games featuring three of the top KIJHL teams.

Tonight’s Game vs Columbia Valley

The Ghostriders played two games last weekend. They lost 4-1 in Grand Forks and 3-2 in Nelson but it was in overtime so they picked up a point.

Game Notes. In Grand Forks the Riders outshot the Bruins 44-36 but could only score one goal off a net front battle that Lucas Desjarlais won with some help from Jock Michael. Rod Hanson was in net.

In Nelson 

Lucas Desjarlais (Haggerty- MacDuff)  and Cole Fournier ( Karpyshyn- Sinclair ) both scored goals and had a nice 2-0 lead in the third.  But a couple of untimely penalties and two power play goals meant the game went into overtime where Joe Davidson’s third goal in a row was the winner. Reed McLennan was in net for the Riders.

The Columbia Valley Rockies are on a five game win streak and four of those wins were on the road.

The Rockies top scorer is Anthony Domina with 21 points and Keenan Ingram is their top goal scorer with 11 goals in 12 games.

Ewan McDevitt and Brett Sweet split the games in net.

Head Coach, Emery Olauson, assistant Coach is former Ghostrider Tayler Sincennes

Ghostrider News Oct 30/22

The Ghostriders played three games last week and earned five of a possible six points. The Riders lost 2-1 in a shootout against Creston then won 3-2 in Summerland Friday and 3-2 in overtime in North Oak Saturday.

Despite getting five points they are still battling to get ahead. Check the standings, all teams are above .500 and well within striking distance of first place.

Game Notes

Against Creston the main story was the goalies. Fernie’s Reed McLennan and Creston’s Parker Forrest stopped 40 and 38 shots and were the stars of the game. Both guys made ten bell saves throughout the game to get it to a shootout and Kaden Slobodian scored the lone Rider goal.

In Summerland it took the Steam just two and a half minutes to take advantage of the Rider’s bus legs and score a pair of goals. 

After that the Ghostriders were like dogs on a bone and had a large territorial advantage but they couldn’t mark any fire hydrants until the third when Jack Karpyshyn, Cole Fournier and Ethan MacDuff with the game winner scored. 

The shots were 32-12  thus the territorial advantage but not a lot of great chances until the third period.

Reed McLennan got the win in net and Jack Karpyshyn’s goal came right after he got out of the penalty box and beat a D-man then scored on a breakaway. MacDuff’s game winner was his third GW and he was the first star of the game.

In North Oak new goalie Rod Hanson got his first start, first win and and first game star by stopping 32 shots. Lucas Desjarlais and Ethan MacDuff with two goals including the OT winner scored the goals. 

The Riders penalty kill was a perfect 6-0 and three kills were in the third period. Fernie didn’t score on their lone power play chance or on any of their several breakaway chances.

This happened at the end of the game... it means the coaches were kicked out with a possible pending suspension. But the KIJHL has been looking at these heat of the moment penalties and rescinded many of them this year. See below, Fernie coach Valin was well within his rights to defend his player. There was more but this is what is out in the public.

And finally... Pat Gilmar was recognized as Fernie’s Citizen of the Year . Pat did more trail building and maintenance than anyone I know.

Read about it here