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

 

Notes and playoff notes

 The Ghostriders lost both road games in Invermere last weekend. On Saturday the score was 4-1  Dayton Nelson scored the lone goal and Casey Thomson was named as the first star.

On Sunday AM the score was 5-3  

Kort Kissinger was the first star with two goals and an assist and Ethan MacDuff pitched in with a single.

A few notes

The KIJHL Coaches ( and lots of em) have been getting in on the league mayhem lately... click on the bad boy list to see all the felons LIST HERE

Three games in a row is tough enough without having a short bench due to suspensions and it probably cost the team at least a point or two. I can almost hear the KIJHL discipline committee snickering from here  

No rest for the wicked though... they are about to have another three game weekend with a home game against the first place Nelson Leafs Friday (you don't want to miss that game) a trip to Golden Saturday then back home to play the Border Bruins at 4:00 Sunday. (rescheduled game)

It’s January 31st so it’s time to  take the standings a little more seriously... remembering that Tuesday the Rockies are in Creston so the standings will be changing.

The Rockies knew they could get first and took advantage of the shorthanded Riders by winning both games. Add to that Kimbo going 1-1 on the weekend and the Rockies are now in first place... but for how long

 Kimberley has a pretty good schedule

But so do the Rockies They only play each other one time in Invermere Feb 11.

The Riders don’t get to relax with Creston sneaking up the back steps... and they could climb in the window

Both teams have eight games left... But two of the games are Rider home games against Creston. 

The odds favour Fernie and so does their schedule with 6 home games... but you gotta win em   

Plus our friends (shut up it’s just a joke) in Kimberley play Creston three times in their battle for first place. Go Ki... So I can’t actually say it whatever

Fernie 4 Golden 1

 Ghostriders 4 Golden 1 

The Riders were off their game quite a bit in the first period but took over  in the second with two goals and added another two in the third for the W

Just a few Notes

Dayton Nelson scored his 14th goal in the second and it turned out to be the game winner. So he scored another one in the third ... I’m not sure anyone tries quite as hard as that kid.

Liam Samyica pronounced... well I can barely pronounce my own name. Anyway the  Fernie local scored the first goal and the empty netter to ice the game Friday ... He has had a few big hits and nice assists passing from the wing to the centre for goals in the last few weeks... Great job by GM Valin and his group identifying this guy at the start of the season betting that given time he would turn into a KIJHL regular

Also a nice job picking up new goalie Casey Thomson who gave the Riders a chance to win in Kimberley (even GM Stuart admitted that, and he doesn’t usually say anything good about other players) and he shut  Golden out in the first period while the boys figured a few things out between periods.

Kaden Slobodian was back in the lineup Friday and just in time with all the suspensions, still they only had 15 skaters

And I suspect a short bench tonight on the road against the Rockies. They will also have have to play a third (rescheduled) road game at 10:30 Sunday AM in Invermere but will get Fournier and Oviatt and the aforementioned Valin back from suspension.

The Rockies will be hunting for two wins especially after Kimberley lost 5-4 in Nelson (see, the suspensions weren’t all bad) The Rockies could potentially get first place by Sunday afternoon... but probably won’t... there did I pissoff enough people yet..