The Ghostriders move on to play Kimberley

 With a 5-1 win Saturday night the underdog  Ghostriders won their series with the high scoring Rockies four games to two.

Fernie will now play Kimberley, tentatively scheduled to start Friday in Kimberley. 

We try not to use long words so Kimberley fans should know that “tentatively" means it’s possible that could change

Game Six

The Riders overwhelmed the Rockies in the first period and had a 3-1 lead. 

In the second they survived a pretty good Rockies push but Fernie scored the only goal.

In the third with Aiden Kruhlak’s big saves they finished the game off and the 1020 screaming fans went home happy.

Aiden Kruhlak made some spectacular saves for the Riders in the series and out gunned Ewan McDevitt again on Saturday. 

McDevitt was pulled with about five minutes left in the game but Kruhlak shut them down and MacDuff scored the only goal.

A few notes

There was some hugging in the final handshake lineup... clearly most of the players know each other from camps, minor hockey, trades etc.

With a league best 218 goals scored in the regular season the Rockies were a formidable opponent ... but in the six playoff games Fernie scored 21and let in 16. The CVR scored 16 and allowed 21. That tells me that the players really bought into Head Coach Ty Valin’s game plan.

With about 30 seconds left in the game D-man Andrew Kennedy had the puck behind his net with a Rockies’ player in pursuit... Much to the amusement of this writer Kennedy played keep away by skating in circles and not giving up the puck. If it would have been a 20 year old chasing him like say Damon Byers I think Kennedy would have a limp today.

Kort Kisinger, Jarod Sigouin, Jack Lambert and Scott Sinclair scored the four game winning goals. 

If there was a vote I think the fan favourite would be #13 Liam Fitzgerald... a fearless fireplug who chipped in with 5 points in six games and was second in team scoring just a few points behind Kort Kisinger with 5G and 3A 

Team President Barb Anderson says it has been nine years since the Ghostriders have won a first round series.

Congratulations to the players and coaches.

CLICK HERE to see the full Ghostrider scoring stats