Tuesday 27 February 2018

Riders stay alive win in OT

Down 3-0 in the series and in game four in Sparwood the Ghostriders surprised the Kimberley Dynamiters with a 4-3 overtime win. Game sheet here

Greg Susinski scored the first goal then Brendan Nemes got the Riders up 2-0 with a PP goal before Nitro Mason Palaga scored a PP goal for the Nitros and the first ended 2-1 Fernie.

The only goal in the second was off the stick of Brendan Nemes, his second of the night.

In the third Kimberly would score two goals, James Farmer scored short handed then Cam Russell tied the game at 3 late in the third.

In the OT Rider Player of the Game Greg Susinski scored his second on the night to win the game just 2:53 into the OT.

Notes
Both teams scored a PP goal
Rider’s most dependable D Grayson Neufeld was kicked out for a 5 min check to the head in the first.
KD Nick Graham and FG Sam Rousseau were kicked out for fighting in the first.
KI scoring leader Brock Palmer was held to 1A
Zak Larson out duelled KD Cody Campbell in net
The shots were 44-42 KD
Att 320
Lots of minor PIM KD was 1-8 FG 1-7 on the PP

The series resumes Wednesday night in Kimberley  and will be on the radio with Josh Hoffman at the mike.

In other news
Ryan Skytt scored in OT giving the Columbia Valley Rockies a 3-1 series lead vs Creston. Ben Kelsch had the W in net. They play in Creston March 1st.
Ross King stopped 43 of 44 Nelson Leaf shots to give the Grand Forks Border Bruins their first win, Nelson leads 3-1 heading back to Nelson March 1st.
Coach Duner and his 100 Mile House Wranglers sweep Chase with a 6-3 win.
Beaver Valley got up 7-3 and held on for a 7-6 series tying win (2-2) with Castlegar
Osoyoos defeats Princeton 4-3 to sweep their series.
Kelowna takes a 3-1 lead on Summerland with a 5-0 shutout Joseph McLeod had the shutout.

Kamloops won 2-1 in OT, Jaydon Castle had the goal but Revelstoke has a 3-1 series lead heading back to Revy.


Tuesday 20 February 2018

The Riders will play Kimberley, Round the League and the usual drivel

The Ghostriders finished up the regular season with two wins against Golden and a 5-4 loss to Creston.

The Riders ended up in fourth place with 34 points. They will play Kimberley in the first round, they finished with a league leading 78 points. That means Kimberley will have home ice vs Fernie and every other team (if any) they play this season.

With a 44 point lead on the Riders it will be a tough series. The Riders lost all 8 games they played against Kimbo this year but most of them were  one goal games. So it is more than possible to win this best of 7 series.

The Riders match up well on the gritty side of the puck but are behind on the scoring side, a couple of big losses put them at -17 in that department against the KD. 

Not many people think the boys have a chance in this series so the Riders will have to use that as a motivational tool and try and channel the Vegas Golden Knights with their shockingly successful "Us Against the World" mantra. Anything can happen and you don’t win on paper.

I believe that systems help a bit but if a team plays a basic defensive game and each player “really want’s it more in  every situation", they can win. That is what Mike Sullivan convinced the Penguins they needed to do two years ago when he was brought in to a failing team mid season, and they won everything, twice.

The Riders are in Kimberley Friday and Saturday then come here Sunday Feb 25th and Tuesday the 26th. Game 5 is in Kimberley Wednesday and Thursday March 1st game 6 is in Sparwood. Game 7 is Saturday in KD ville.

The games in Kimberley will be on the radio with 99.1 the Drive’s 99.1 Josh Hoffman at the mike

Rider Notebook
The Riders were down 5-1 in the second in the Creston game last Sunday then scored three to make it close. Owen Titus and Jordan Kromm each had a goal and 2 assists. If guys like that can score next week...

Sometimes the refs call fight’s that aren’t fights,  we saw that a couple of weeks ago in the Kimberley game... but Brent Mack and Creston’s Liam Rycroft was a real fight...actually Sam Rousseau and Eric Welford each had one of those in the last couple of weeks as well... quiet everyone BC Hockey might be listening.

Mitch Titus finished with 64 points and finished number 7 in overall KIJHL scoring. A nice regular season ending for the “C”.

Keelan Saworski scored the most Rider goals with 26 and Kevin Pierce, Tristan Downe and Grayson Neufeld led the defence in scoring with 21-20 and 19 points. 

Broc Merkl played 32 games with a .888 save % and Zak Larson played 15 with a .895 save %.

Ryan Partaker had the most PIM’s with127 followed by Brant Mack with 105.

Ethan Jang and Jace Woodley remain on the injury list and are questionable for the start of the PO's.

Mitch Titus’ second goal in OT  in Golden was the game winner.

AP Geoff Drought had the win in net in Golden, he is a 17 year old from Cranbrook. Geoff played 4 games and had 3 wins against Golden.

Round the League

Kimberley finished 1st overall and ended on a 9 game win streak.

Creston’s Liam Plunkette won the KI scoring race with 94 points. He also had the most assists with 61.

Kelowna’s Brody Dale had the most points per game with 2.9, he had at least a point in 19 of the 20 games he played.

Creston’s Ron Wilkie had the most goals with 48, Rebel Ed Lindsey was the closest to him with 38.


The first place Nelson Leafs  won a couple of awards, goalie Josh Williams had the best save % with .937 and Leaf assistant coach Sean Dooley had the best suspension % with 7 games per incident... he will miss the first round of the playoffs. Dooley in a brilliant come from behind effort late in the season has now ousted Kimberley’s Derek Stuart who was leading with 5. Both coaches were yelling etc at the officials. Cause they’re so easy to get ...
* There may be more that we don’t know about because the league tries to hide coaching suspensions. So just wondering, aren't playoff games worth more than regular season games? It musta bin bad.

The Revelstoke Grizzlies finished with the most PIM 1406, they win the coveted KIJHL colouring book. The Grizz finished with 73 points, second overall. Last season they had 41 points. Good recruiting job by Ryan Parent, is he that division’s Coach-GM of the Year.

Nelson’s Brent Headon had the most PIM’s with 195 we'll  send  him a copy of the colouring book as well.

Gone are the days of players with 400+ minutes and games where even the fans needed face-masks... Next year will be even worse thanks to Putyourfacemaskonachenko , Could there be more leagues going full cage next year... stay tuned

Osoyoos had the most power play goals with 78 and Beaver Valley was the most likely to score on the PP and did 27.62 % of the time.

Princeton scored the most shorthanded goals with 13, Kimberley was next with 12 but they only allowed 5 against vs Princeton’s 13. The Ghostriders were 4th with 9 scored and 5 shorthanded goals allowed. 

Nelson had the best penalty kill and were successful 88.60% of the time. Kimberley was 4th at 87.75 Fernie last at 73.68. More things to watch out for this weekend.



Sunday 4 February 2018

Rider weekend 1-1

The Ghostriders won one and lost one on the weekend.

On Friday in Sparwood against Kimberley Brant Mack scored shorthanded early in the first to give the Riders a 1-0 lead. In the second the Nitro’s scored two, Bamber and Palaga had the goals and Kimberley was up 2-1.

Late in the third with Zak Larson out of the net Kimberley scored two EN goals and that was the game.


On Saturday the Riders were in Golden in a game that featured the return of Brendan Nemes who hadn’t played since December 15th. When Nemes is going he is a point a game guy.

Also just back from injury was Defenceman Eric Welford, Eric opened the scoring on the PP in the first then Keelan Saworski scored in the second. In the third period Brendan Nemes made it 3-2 and Saworski with his second of the game and 23rd on the year scored what would turn out to be the game winner because Rocket  Nick Runnalls scored at 3:14 on the PP to make it a close 4-3  game. Broc Merkl had the win in net. 

Notes

The Kimberley game was yet another one goal game (2 EN goals ) that the Riders haven’t been able to win when they play Kimberley. They will be playing the Nitro's in the first round of the playoffs so will have to find a way to win those close games.

Brendan Nemes was nemed the Player of the Game in Golden with a goal and an assist in his first game back, he was the Riders playoff MVP last year and the post season starts on or about Friday the 23rd in Kimberley this year. They will need him going at his best then.

Mitch Titus had 3A in Golden taking him up to #7 in KIJHL scoring with 58 points.

Goalies
Coach Craig Mohr continues to play Zak Larson one game then Broc Merkl the next... it will be interesting to see who the coaches pick to start the P/O’s, or will they continue to do the one and one routine. 

D-man Eric Welford covers a lot of ice for the Riders and plays with an edge so I was kind of surprised his goal in Golden was his first. Hope he can stay healthy.

Brant Mack’s short handed goal was the Riders 9th SHG this season, they are tied with Kimbo in that department. KD has allowed 5 PPG against and Fernie 4 . Things to watch out for in the P/O.

Jace Woodley has joined Ethan Jang the injury list now and is out for a couple of weeks.

In other news
Kimberley has had trouble with Creston lately, they had several suspensions in a lopsided loss earlier in the season then their Coach blamed the referee in another bad loss a couple of weeks ago. We’ve heard that before from the Kimbo coaches over the years, they never seem to just lose a game once in a while without some sort of reason. 

Did they break the spell ? 
The Nitros won 4-3 at home last night against Creston outshooting them 40-24 according to the on line  game sheet. Mason Palaga was given a match as well according the notoriously unreliable on line game sheets.  He is an all star D who has had some discipline problems. Top  KIJHL scorers Liam Plunkett and Ron Wilkie were shutout by the Dynamiters last night as well.

On the other side the Osoyoos Coyotes scored 3 PP goals for a 6-3 win vs Kelowna. With the 3 PPG they now lead the league with 70 power play goals... nearest competitor, Revelstoke with 64. Kimberley has 50 and Fernie 36.