The Riders series is tied at 2 and Round the League

The Ghostriders lost game four by a 6-2 score.

 In Invermere the Riders lost game one 5-2 then they won game two 5-2  

Back in Fernie they won 4-3 then lost 6-2. 

The series it tied 2-2. 

Ain’t nobody won nothin yet

On Monday the Riders are back in Invermere to play the Rockies and on Tuesday they are home to play game six where someone will either win the series or force a game seven.

Lose 6-2 or 2-1 it doesn't matter, whoever shows up will matter next game and who gets the calls will matter too.  Example... in the playoffs the second penalty while shorthanded should be a definite penalty... not a subjective one

Round the League

Kimberley defeats Golden 4-0

Revelstoke defeats Sicamous 4-0

Beaver Valley Leads Creston 3-1

Osoyoos leads Princeton 3-1

Summerland leads Kelowna 3-1

Kamloops leads Chase 3-1

Castlegar leads Nelson 3-1

At the end of the Rebel Nelson game a Nelson scratched player was accosted by a fan in the stands and a  Nelson AC coach went into the stands to help him. Nelson also says the Rebel fans were spitting into the Leaf bench and a Rebel Coach swung a stick at their trainer. 

Just before that incident at the end of the game Nelson’s Bryce Sookro was matched (5 games) for an attempt to injure right after the face-off with a a hi stick on a Rebel player... 

The Rebels were no angels either their Tyler Ralph (3 games) took a five minute charging major just  a minute before the other incident... 

Discipline Page

Riders and Rockies tied 1-1 after two games

 Fernie 5 @ Rockies 2

The Ghostriders lost game one by a 5-2 score then turned things around on the Rockies with a  5-2 win of their own to even up the series at one each.

The big deal in the first two games was secondary scoring. In game one top gun Kort Kisinger and Jake Oviatt had the goals and in game two Scott Sinclair, Jock Michael, Jake Oviatt and Rylan Cardinal who scored his first goal of the season on the last weekend of the season got two... including the game winner 

Casey Thomson started game one in net but in the third Dylan Lacroix went in and finished the game then won game two.

Round the League

Kimberley won both games against Golden 2-1and 9-2... I think I know where this is goin

Nelson lost to Castlegar 2-1 then won 3-2 and only allowed the Rebels 11 shots

Creston beat the Nitehawks 5-4 then were pummelled 7-1 last night

First place overall Osoyoos is up 2-0 on Princeton

Summerland is up 2-0 on Kelowna

Revelstoke is up 2-0 on Sicamous

And Kamloops and Chase are tied 1-1

The Riders will play the Rockies

 

After winning 2-0 in Castlegar Saturday night the Kimberley Dynamiters finished up in first place by one point over the Columbia Valley Rockies. 

Kimberley will now play Golden and the Ghostriders will play the Rockies in the first round of the playoffs.

The Schedule

Fernie is in Invermere Tuesday Wednesday 22-23

The Rockies are here Friday Saturday 25-26

Fernie is in Invermere Monday 28

Invermere is in Fernie March 1

Fernie in Invermere March 2

Notes

The Last three games

Creston 1 @ Fernie 2 

The Rockies 3 @ Fernie 2

Creston 1 @ Fernie 3

The last few games were just tuneup's for the post season... notice the low scores

In the Rockies game both teams rested their top scorers and players who don’t usually get lots of ice got some

As long as the games weren’t all that important I would have liked to have seen AP goalie  Brennan Koch who spent the week practicing with the Riders (while Casey Thomson was away) get a start or at least play a period... it would be great to have a local goalie in the future

Final Ghostriders scoring stats here

Kort Kisinger, Dayton Nelson and Ethan MacDuff finished 1-2-3 as you would expect and Scott Sinclair was the top scoring D man

From what I can tell it looks like Kaden Slobodian will miss the first week or so,  some others are day to day... the Rockies can figure that out for themselves.

The Best hold on a game winning OT goal goes to Dayton Nelson in the 2-1 Creston game Feb 15 Ethan MacDuff scored the OT winner a few seconds later... and Nelson didn’t even get an assist...woulda finished with one more point than MacDuff...  Rylan Cardinal scored the first goal and his first goal in that game.

Cole Fournier with a G and an A and Reese Maclean scored in the Rockies game and Jake Oviatt, Kort Kisinger (GW) and Matt Schulmeister scored in the second Creston game.

Ethan MacDuff had 5 game winning goals, Kort Kisinger and Jake Oviatt each had 4 

Half of Oviatt’s 8 goals were GW's better play him late in games

Dylan Lacroix finished 8-2-1(OT L) and Casey Thomson finished 2-3 

Final Thoughts

I think Fernie matches up better against the Rockies than Kimbo and maybe we’ll get a long series

And Finally

You don’t need a stupid dating app or service !

Riders report Feb 13

 The Ghostriders played a home and home with Golden Friday and Saturday. The games didn’t mean anything in the standings because Creston got moved to the Murdoch Division for the playoffs.  More on that in a few paragraphs.*

Fernie couldn’t  get second place and Golden couldn’t catch Fernie. So the games were just a tune up on defensive play PP and PK etc.

The Games

The bad news for the Riders was that for the second week in a row they lost to the Rockets in a shootout, this time 2-1 in Fernie the good news... there are no stupid shootouts in the playoffs. The bad news we don’t get the fun three on three either. 

Fernie 8 @ Golden 3 

A few Notes

Dylan Lacroix started both games in net...the boys didn’t score for him Friday but they did Saturday.

Ethan MacDuff scored his 17th goal, it was the only goal Friday

On Saturday

Stay at home D man Nick Mitchell scored his first goal and Cole Fisher scored his 5th .

Matthew Schulmeister got his 2nd and Reese Maclean got his 2nd as well.

Liam Samyica scored his 5th and 6th and Kort Kisinger got his 16th and 17th.

Jock Michael finished the night with 3 assists against his former team and Kolby Hennessy had 2 assists.

As of now the Riders will play the Rockies in the first round... but that could change. The Rockies are in Fernie Friday and host Golden Saturday. Kimberley has Creston Friday and are in Castlegar Saturday ... Pick em

I was told Fernie’s first two home playoff games will be Friday and Saturday the 25th and 26th... 

*It’s a long story that you can read here but basically it happened because Nelson and Golden didn’t want to play each other because of the long travel and money... but in the summer they agreed to it. 

Nelson would have been ok but Golden probably doesn’t have the crowds and money to burn on that series. 

I can’t  believe Beaver Valley agreed to this change,  now they have to play Creston instead of Castlegar. If their Governor agreed (probably didn’t) to the extra travel costs to appease their hated rival in Nelson... they need a new Governor... for $2000 I’ll vote yes... come on down Monty

And Finally, and not a moment too soon

Lots of talk about relaxing restrictions in the future... but we’ve heard that about 90 times already

I just wish we could go back a couple of years, Maybe if I eat a tide pod....

RIP Mark Brown

Riders get 3 of a possible 6 points

 So I don’t think the Ghostriders were particularly happy with last weekend’s results but they did get three of a possible six points and a little bit of space between them and the apple heads behind them

So the question is... will the Rockies finish in first, or will Kimberley overtake them.

I think the Riders match up better against the Rockies... but the blood thirsty fans want something completely different (explanation for Kimbo fans, that means you guys) and a FG / KD series also keeps the trigger happy KIHJL discipline committee in the spotlight... look at us  we mean business, yeah whatever

Most of the suspension penalties are cumulative so just when you hope the games are at their most intense... they have an answer for it

Nelson 5@ Fernie 1 

To me Nelson is the best team I have seen this year, but they aren’t perfect and the if the Riders got an A1 defensive game and an A1 goaltending performance they could give them a go in the playoffs... if it ever got to that point... The Riders didn’t have those attributes or much else going for them last Friday... or 

Fernie 5 @ Golden 6 in a S/O 

In Golden the Riders had a 5-2 lead in the third but allowed a power play and two even strength goals that gave the Rockets the tie and a chance to win in the shootout and they did... It was a point on the road but probably a quiet four hours on the bus afterwards.

Grand Forks 2 @ Fernie 4

The Bruins were just what the Riders needed and the two points could end up being very important... but I think the Riders will end up in third anyway... 

Notes 

The youngest player on the team 2005  Owen Johnson (who’s hair doesn’t look like that anymore, mine either) 

 scored his first goal and it was the game winner against Grand Forks

Liam Samyica chipped in with the assist and finished the weekend with a goal and three assists.

Rylan Cardinal had two assists in Golden and Kolby Hennessy had the lone goal Friday and two in Golden

Cole Fisher had a goal and an assist on the weekend as well... we don’t usually see these players on the score sheet 

Next up a home and home with Golden, Friday in Fernie then Saturday in Golden. That will be the Riders last regular season road game of the year.

The future is uncertain but the end is near

The game I want to see Friday Feb 18 in Fernie vs the Rockies... they are in a battle for first place