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 But the KIJHL has been looking at these heat of the moment penalties and rescinded many of them this year.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 

Fernie Ghostriders Gameday Oct 25 vs Creston

The Ghostriders only played one game last weekend and that was a 3-2 overtime win against the Sicamous Eagles.

The Riders’ Lucas Desjarlais (Karpyshyn Slobodian) scored early in the first period then Ethan MacDuff (Haggerty) scored half way through the period for a 2-0 lead. 

With under two minuets left in the first Eagle Sean Smith scored to make it 2-1 Fernie.

Colton Schmidt tied the game for the Eagles five minutes into the third period and neither team was able to break the 2-2 tie so the game went into overtime.

With just eight seconds left in the exciting OT Ethan MacDuff (Kisinger Haggerty) scored his second goal of the game for the Ghostrider win. 

Game Notes

Lucas Desjarlais’ first period goal was his first of the season. 

Ethan MacDuff’s game winning goal was his fifth goal of the season and his second game winning goal. 

The shots ended up 39-38 for Sicamous and both goalies were stars of their teams. Reed McLennan who stopped a breakaway in the OT and Eagle Gage Reimer were between the pipes.

Tuesday’s Game vs Creston 

Tonight the boys play Creston in a battle for fourth place. Creston won both their games last weekend, 3-2 against Kimberley and 7-4 over Golden and are now on a five game win streak. Creston’s top scorer is #14 Luke Chakrabarti who has 12 goals and 18 points in 7 games. Creston’s Head Coach is Brad Tobin.

Creston has 11 points in the standings and Fernie has 12. The Eddie Mountain is a tough division this year, all teams are well over .500 and are within striking distance of first place. Both Kimberley and Columbia Valley lost  their games last weekend compressing the standings even more then they already were. 

The Ghostriders play in Summerland and North Okanagan (Armstrong) this weekend, then on Tuesday November 1st Golden is in town to play the Riders. After that the boys are on the road again and play in Grand Forks on the Friday and in Nelson on the Saturday . 

Full Ghostrider scoring stats here

Ghostrider Report Oct 16/22

The Ghostriders got back on track Friday with a 7-4 win over the Kamloops Storm. This was a fun game for the fans that featured several nice goals, nice passes and even a few cheap shots. 

We also heard the autumn sounds of pucks ringing off the posts. At first I thought it was just the two coaches banging their heads after all the goals and fun to watch mistakes, but it was the posts. 

Scott Sinclair scored a couple of goals and his first one was the goal of the night after skating around a couple of defenders and Jock Michale scored his first of the year off a nice pass from Jack Karpyshyn.

Other scorers were Kort Kisinger with two, Ethan MacDuff with a goal and four assists and Taylor Haggerty with a goal and three assists. Those three players had 11 points and made some great passing plays on their goals. Dylan Lacroix started the game in net but but was pulled in the second period and Reed McLennan finished it.

The Ghostriders lost 2-0 in Invermere Saturday night with the second goal into the empty net. Fernie’s Reed McLennan was the Rider game star and Rockie’s goalie Ewan McDevitt was the the game star. 

Around the League 

Both Creston and 100 Mile House won their first games Friday then Creston followed it up by winning Saturday and Sunday. 

100 Mile’s win was against the first place Revelstoke Grizzlies who play in Fernie December 10th.

The Golden Rockets served notice that they weren’t finishing last again this year and have won three of their last four games.

After the weekend the Ghostriders find themselves in fourth place, three points up on Creston who have two games in hand.

Fernie plays what has quickly turned into a must win against Sicamous this Friday here in Fernie .

And finally Congratulations the the new Mayor Nic Milligan and his council and to friend of the blog former FMH President Tracy Audia Kelly who also won a seat at the rodeo. 

You can see how the next game is important for the Riders below... note the games played

Rider News Oct 10/22

 

The Ghostriders played two games last weekend, they lost 3-2 in overtime in Kimberley and 5-2 at home here in Fernie.

The Riders were down 2-0 after two periods in Kimberley but in the third they fought back and Kort Kisinger scored his fourth of the season then Jacob Vanlerberg scored the game tying goal to earn the Riders a point and a chance to get two. Vanlerberg’s goal was his first of the season. 

Kimberley’s Cash Regan ruined the comeback when he stole the puck off the opening face-off and scored just seven seconds into the overtime.

Rider net minder Reed McLennan and Kimberley’s Cash Regan were game stars and Taylor Haggerty had two assists.

On Saturday in Fernie with a different referee it was the Monty Python “And Now For Something Completely Different” movie and we went from five to fourteen power plays. But only one team took advantage of the Flying Circus and it wasn’t the one we like. Kimberley went 4-7 on the PP and the Riders 1-7. Fernie goals were from Jack Karpyshyn and Michele Romeo (PP)  who each scored their first goals.

Reed McLennan was named a game star in his first two starts on the road but the wheels fell off at home and down 5-1 after two periods Dylan Lacroix took over for the third and he stopped the bleeding, and looked good doing it.

Kort Kisinger led the team in scoring last season

Six hundred and sixty fans at the Riders second home game last Friday

Next up is Kamloops here in Fernie on Friday.

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Our cage loving friends at Hockey Canada are in hot water for covering up various sexual assault allegations and they are going to court to keep the facts covered up. 

Comically this is the Hockey Canada "Mission Statement”  As Curley of the Three Stooges used to say  Nyuk  Nyuk Nyuk

Fernie’s Frank Lento a former Chair of Hockey Canada had this to say Read it here

And finally 

It’s election time in Fernie. The current Mayor and some Council members were not particularly friendly to the Ghostriders and now it costs a lot more to ice a team for the locals and the tourists the city says it loves so much. 

Anyway... Tracy Audia Kelly is a former Fernie Minor Hockey President and would likely be much more in tune with exactly what it takes to run a team in the KIJHL. You can read about her here

Rider Report October 3/22

The Ghostriders managed three of a possible six points on their Okanagan road trip last weekend. They won 3-0 in Kelowna, lost 3-2 in overtime in Princeton then fell 5-1 in Osoyoos.

Newly acquired goalie Reed Mclennan shutout his former team 3-0 in Kelowna. Mclennan was named as the first star and stopped 25 shots. The Riders had 50 shots and Kaden Slobodian (PP), Kort Kisinger and Sean Jacobs (PP) scored the goals.

The Riders were aided by meatheads Brett Joseph and Mattias Reha who took 34 and 19 penalty minutes and were each rewarded with three game suspensions  for kneeing and head contact, thus the two PP goals.

In Princeton the much improved Posse who only won 15 games last year gave the Riders all they could handle and even outshot them 34-32. Dylan Lacroix was in net and both teams had glorious scoring chances but Andrew Karam got the 3-2 overtime winner and Josh Hager the win in net. 

The Riders had goals from Taylor Haggerty (PP) and Kaden Slobodian who each scored their second goals.

Three games in three nights proved too much and in Osoyoos the Riders lost 5-1. Several minor penalties in this game but the Rider power play was cold while the Coyotes PP was hot and they scored three. 

Kort Kisinger scored the lone Fernie goal and last year’s KIJHL scoring leader Jack Henderson had a goal and an assist and his goalie Rhett Harkot was the first star.

An age old problem continues to plague KIJHL road teams, Sunday night games. The Riders played at 7:00 Fernie time Sunday in Osoyoos so were on the road all night long to trying to get home after a three game weekend. 

Fernie treats their visitors even worse by starting at 7:30. Maybe the league should mandate 2:00 Sunday  games ?  Look at the schedule and you will see that most teams play afternoon games on Sunday. But what do I know.

Things don’t get any easier for the Ghost, they play in Kimberley Friday and play Kimberley in Fernie  Saturday.