Fernie Ghostrider News Site

Here is the full "Off the Glass" Column -not the BUTCHERED onethat was in the Fernie Free Press

2012-02-01T21:16:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders defeated the Columbia Valley Rockies 7-1 last Friday in a game that had the 787 fans sitting on the edge of their seats, the arena staff had just washed the bleachers. Not much push back from these guys as the Riders also outshot them 58-8 giving them their 40^th loss of the season. A shorthanded Rider squad saw Connor McLaughlin, Brendan Burge and Ben Primeau each pick up 3 points while Chris Solecki, Ty Morton, Derek Georgopoulos, Dylan Robertson and Alex Milhouse all sat out with either injuries or the flu, Austin Evans also left in early in the first after a high stick in the teeth. Affiliate’s Matt McArthur and Jeff Rayman both suited up for the Riders. Rayman (15yrs) is pretty strong for someone that young and made a few hits while 16 year old Cranbrook Midget Ice Captain McArthur also made some nice defensive plays and both players picked up an assist.

On Saturday the Riders served notice with a 6-4 win in Kimberley that they want first place. It wasn’t easy as the boys had leads of 2-1 and 4-2 only to see the Nitro’s tie the game each time. Everything changed after a Dallin Wolf cheap shot on Marty Wicks resulted in a 5 minute major allowing the Ghostriders to score two goals for the win. Connor McLaughlin was the first star with 3 goals and a fight against Oli Dickson who is suppose to be their designated fighter but now fights scorers. Some numbers, there were 10 goals scored Saturday 7 were on the power play, Kimberley had 3 and the Ghostriders had 4, Brendon Mangone had 2 goals, Stefen Seel 3 assists and there were 2 fights (Robertson won his unanimously) and Fraser Abdallah got his 4^th win in front of 900 fans.

And finally, we have been following the 100 Mile House “We want a team to move here” saga all season now and the latest news is that they have achieved their goal of selling 300 season’s tickets and have even picked their team colors for the upcoming season. All the KIJHL owners are in deny mode and are saying it’s not us that are moving North, but we think there’s a Pinocchio out there in Disney Land.

Two Ghostriders to play some junior "A" games this weekend.

2012-01-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

Austin Evans has been called up to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs for their game in Trail on Thursday February 2. Austin will play his 4th game this year for the Bulldogs.

Stefen Seel has gone to Salmon Arm for the week of practice and 3 games. He will play his 1st Junior 'A' game Wednesday February 1 in Salmon Arm vs the Westside Warriors.

#9 Austin Evans is the Ghostriders nominee for the KIJHL POM

2012-01-30T20:17:00.001-07:00

The Fernie Ghostrider nominee for the KIJHL player of the month is Austin Evans. In 7 games Austin registered 3 goals, 6 assists and 4 penalty minutes. He helped his team record a record of 6-1 during the month of January

Fernie 6 Kimberley 4

2012-01-29T07:59:00.002-07:00

With a 6-4 win in Kimberley the Fernie Ghostriders served notice that they want first place and the Nitros will probably have to run the table to get it from them or face Creston in the first round. (photo Connor McLaughlin 3 G)

The Riders scored 2 in the first and had leads of 2-1at the end of the first and 4-2 mid second but the Nirtos tied the game up each time. In the third Dallin Wolf was called for an for Illegal Check to the Head (5 Min.) on Marty Wicks and that cost the Nitros the game as the Riders scored two power play goals to make it 6-4. The announcers on the Nitro broadcast said Wicks had hit Nitro backup goalie Jeremy Mousseau with his stick as he skated by their bench and that was why Wolf took the major on him. If that was so then live by the sword and die by the sword, that’s the way it is, but not fighters fighting actual players. Nitro fighter Olli Dickson who took out Fraser Abdallah for several weeks last season fought Connor McLaughlin in the last ten minutes and now they will miss the next game. A big loss for one team, not so big for the Nitros.

Connor McLaughlin had the hat trick and was named as first star, Nitro Richard Hubscher with 1 G 3 A the second star and Brendon Mangone with 2 goals the third star. Zach Traverse scored the other Rider goal and Stefen Seel had 3 assists.

Notes
Seven power play goals on the night, the Nitros scored 3 of their four on the PP while the Riders scored 4 of 6 on the PP, Dylan Robertson won his fight and 900 fans were at the game. Click to see thefull game sheet here. With the win the Riders grab a 4 point lead on the Nitros for first but they still have 2 games in hand. See the standings here Kimberley plays Beaver Valley this afternoon, the top 5 KIJHL goal scorers all play on these two teams. Fernie is off now untill Friday when they have a home and home with Golden.

Riders win 7-1

2012-01-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders defeated the Columbia Valley Rockies 7-1 on Friday night here in Fernie in front of 787 screaming fans. Connor McLaughlin led the way with 2 G and an A while Brendan Burge and Ben Primeau each had 3 points. The Riders were without Chris Solecki, Ty Morton, Derek Georgopoulos, Dylan Robertson and Alex Milhouse who were out with injuries and the flu. Austin Evans left in the first with some sort of injury. See the game sheet here. AP’s Matthew McArthur and Jeffrey Rayman both suited up for the Riders. Rayman (15yrs) looks strong for someone that young and made a few hits while McArthur made a few nice defensive plays and picked up an assist. He looks stronger and smarter than he did at the start of the season and will likely play with the Ghostriders full time next season.
The Ghostriders play in Kimberley Saturday night...gametime is 7:00.

Riders play the Rockies and a special bobble head doll

2012-01-26T05:50:00.001-07:00

The Ghostriders play the Columbia Valley Rockies here in Fernie on Friday night and then on Saturday night they travel to Kimberley to play the Dynamiters. The Ghostriders lost 4-3 to Creston last Friday but rebounded with a 9-1 exhibition game win against the Glacier Nationals last Saturday. The Rockies lost 4-3 to Chase last Friday and 4-1 to Nelson last Saturday and they have a 3-39 record and are 1-9 in their last ten games. Former Ghostrider goalie Scott Legault is still with the Rockies.

After Friday’s game the Ghostriders only have four home games left until the playoffs. Two of the more interesting games are on February 11^th when Creston returns and on the 19^th when Kimberley shows up for the last regular season game of the year.
The Coaches picked Cole Conway as their Tim Horton’s Player of the Week, Ben Primeau as their McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week and Stefan Seel scored the Subway Goal of the week.
Injuries, Derek Georgopoulos is out another 5 weeks and Alex Milhouse is day to day.

And finally, if you ever thought, even for a second, that they don’t like fighting in hockey down in the States, give your head a shake, literally. Twenty year old Darren Kramer plays for the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and he likes to fight. In fact he even led the WHL in fights last season with 46 in 68 games, and the fans and the team absolutely adore him. Last weekend they celebrated the carnage with “Darren Kramer Bobble Head Night” where the first 2,000 fans got a unique bobble head doll that not only looked like Kramer, but featured a bobbing head and bobbing gloves. If this were a credit card ad it would be "Priceless"

Josh Gray to Texas... was he tired of the KIJHL backstabbin

2012-01-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

STORY HERE

The Nelson Osoyoos spy ring and the Allen wrench gets screwed

2012-01-22T07:43:00.003-07:00

A great little he said she said going on between Nelson, Osoyoos and Kimberley and right in the middle of it is Osoyoos’ Josh Gray. The 6’3” 205 winger played on the Coyotes championship winning team last season as an 18 year old but it appears that after 28 games and 31 points with the Coyotes this season Gray decided he wanted out of Osoyoos and was talking with Nelson where he was looking to start some fire fighting training. Nelson GM Frank Maida says he consulted with Nelson Fire Chief Simon Grypma about the idea of the Gibson’s native getting some education through the Heritage City department and the leafs thought they had a deal for Gray sewn up. Then at the deadline Osoyoos fooled them all and traded Gray to Kimberley for 19 year old defenseman Lane Koentges who is currently out with a broken hand. Lane’s prognosis puts him out until at least the playoffs, maybe longer. Meanwhile Gray will not report to Kimberley because he wants to start some sort of schooling in Nelson.

This league being what it is will likely uphold the Nelson deal because you can’t stop a kid from going to school. The BC amateur will side with Gray every time. So from here, well away from the situation, my guess is that Maida (Nelson) knew they had Osoyoos over a barrel and wouldn’t offer fair compensation for Gray so Osoyoos gave the stubborn Nelson Leafs a little stab and traded Gray to Kimberley then probably told Gray and Nelson to sort it out with Kimberley. The problem was timing as the deal was at the Jan.10^th deadline. We hear Gray now has his card back and can go to Nelson, if this is true, good luck Kimberley trying to get anything out of those guys. Also from afar this looks like the first mistake Nirto GM Rick Allen has made. His team has improved by leaps and bounds from last season and are the best team the Nirto’s have iced since Coach /GM Scott Beatty left for the WHL. We will get the full story in the next week or so and everyone is mad so this ending should be interesting.

Riders fall 4-3 to Creston

2012-01-21T07:13:00.003-07:00

Click on the player names for their profiles.

The Ghostriders lost 4-3 to the never give up Creston Thunder Cats on Friday night here in Fernie.
Creston’s Scott Swiston from Jaiden Ward and Jordan Johnson scored first on a shot that originated from the point but about 7 minutes later the Riders Stefen Seel from Zach Traverse and Easton Bodeux shot one right through Tyler Moffatt and the period ended tied at 1-1.

The second period was back and forth with lots of shots (17-11 for the Riders) but no scoring until 3:57 – when Ben Primeau put the moves on Tyler Moffatt for the Riders second, Austin Evans had the assist. 14 seconds later Ty Morton scored from the point threw traffic, Brendan Burge and Connor McLaughlin had the assists and the Riders were lookin good at 3-1 but Creston battled back a minute later and Trevor Forward from Scott Swiston scored on a bit of a scramble around Chris Solecki’s net and the period ended with the Riders ahead 3-2.

In the third the shots were 8-8 but it was the Cats who were able to battle through all the hooking and holding for two goals. Andrew Hodder from Jordan Johnson and Trevor Forward scored on the PP and Mark Ferguson from Jesse Collins and Jovi Fabbri scored the game winner with 2.31 left. The Ghostriders pulled their goalie but couldn’t score. The game in this league is definitely not called anything like what you see on TV but that's the way it is and you have to find a way to win and Creston did. Alex Milhouse left the game early with an un-disclosed injury but he says he thinks it's not season ending or anything.

Game Steet Here

Kimberley won their game 5-2 the game sheet penalties are haywire early Sat AM but they will likely fix it and are now in First with 1 game in hand, STANDINGS HERE
The Pat Martins show in Golden he gets a natural hat in the first and the Leafs win 3-2 Gamesheet
Summerland and their 100 fans put a scare into BV Game report

Riders shutout and three KIJHL "Records?"

2012-01-19T17:36:00.002-07:00

This Week's Fernie Free Press "Off the Glass" Column in FULL NOT THE HATCHET JOB FEATURED IN THE PAPER

The Ghostriders were shutout at the January 10^th deadline and couldn’t find a trading partner. It is possible (likely) that the other teams, who are always crying poverty, don’t want to deal (conspire) with the rich guys. Anyway, Rider Gm Will Verner had this to say. “We are very happy with what transpired on Tuesday as sometimes the best move is no move at all. We feel we have a deep club up front and our defence is as good as any team at our level. We felt if we could not make a significant impact to our club we would stick with our team. Derek Georgopolous and Connor McLaughlin have missed significant time and as they come back to the line-up our club will get a spark”.

Well he may be right as the boys defeated Revelstoke 5-4 on Friday and in Nelson they won 4-3 in double OT where the aforementioned McLaughlin scored twice including the O/T winner. The Grizzlies and Leafs are two of the better teams in the league and the Riders easily skated with them. As the year has progressed the younger players have really improved and don’t look out of place even against the better teams. Meanwhile, Kimberley is starting to lose (choke) some key games but could still finish in first place. The winner rides the Golden Rockets, the loser has to use the Thunder Cats litter box in the playoffs.

Three KIJHL records to talk about. The first one is the Fastest Natural Hat Trick that happened January 6^th when Kamloops forward Colten DeFrais scored 3 goals in under two minutes in 9-3 win against Summerland. He’s awarded a second one as he was just as fast to plead not guilty to his assault charge talked about in this column last week.

And finally, Brett Lyon (20yrs old now) played for the Riders in 2007-08 then moved on to the WHL and last week was traded from Moose Jaw to Kelowna. Lyon’s claim to fame on his twitter site is that he currently holds the KIJHL record for the most penalty minutes in a shift with 70. The game sheet on the KIJHL web site credits him with 6 game misconducts and 2 fighting majors all at the same stoppage (stupage) in a Rider win vs Spokane. Way to go Brett, I think.

Fernie vs Creston Friday Night

2012-01-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders play the Creston Thunder Cats Friday, this will be the sixth time this season these two teams have played each other. So far Fernie leads the series 3 games to 2. Creston won the last two games, 5-3 here in Fernie on December 28 and 4-3 in OT in Creston on New Year’s Eve.

With 50 points it is unlikely that the third place Cats can catch either Fernie 62, or Kimberley with 60 and Golden with 34 is too far out of it to even come close to Creston and they will play whoever finishes first in the first round of the playoffs. Creston has been hot lately and they are 7-2-0-1 in their last ten games and in their last game they defeated Revelstoke 4-3.

Creston’s December Player of the Month was #17 Jesse Collins who had 6 goals, 16 assists for 22points in 9 games. “When we play top teams, we bring our best effort, and I’m expecting to do that on Friday,” Creston Coach Brent Heaven. Connor McLaughlin top Photo

The Ghostriders won both of their games last week, 5-4 at home against Revelstoke (Chris Solecki was in net) and in double overtime the Ghostriders defeated the Nelson Leafs 4-3 with Fraser Abdallah between the pipes. Former Leaf # 12 Connor Mclaughlin scored the first goal and the last goal in OT for the win. Since coming back from a six week injury Connor has had 3 goals and an assist in 3 games. Stefan Seel and Alex Milhouse scored the other two goals in Nelson.

Milhouse for the record has had at least a point in all but 4 of the 31 games he has played. Austin Evans had 2 goals and 2 assists last week and has had 2 points in each of his last four games. Stefan Seel (photo)had a goal in each game last week and has a 5 game point streak going. Defenseman Ty Morton is averaging 1 point a game and has had 6 points in his last 3 games. The Captain is second in scoring for “D” men in the league.

Derek Georgopoulos was injured in Nelson and will miss the next 4-6 weeks but remains a possibility for the playoffs in February. Derek is the only injury as of this week.

Riders win in Nelson 4-3

2012-01-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

# 12 Connor McLaughlin scored two including the double OT winner in Nelson Saturday night GAMESHEET HERE With the wins the Ghostriders retain first place STANDINGS HERE
Kimberley is now down to 2 games in hand from a high of 5 a couple of weeks ago. They have lost a couple but won against Revelstoke Saturday.

Riders 5 Revelstoke 4

2012-01-13T22:20:00.006-07:00

The Riders defeated Revelstoke 5-4 on Friday. The Riders had leads of 2-0 and 3-1 at the end of two but Revelstoke scored three in the third to make it very interesting. Brendon Mangone's goal proved to be the game winner in the third on a bit of a fluke that caught Ethan Wood sleeping (nightmare). Goaltending had a lot to do with the win as Wood let in a couple he would like back and Chris Solecki was good enough for the win in Fernie's net. Shots were close but the Riders had territory most of the game.
Some nice goals scored in the game, Ty Morton and Grizz D Reid Blinkhorn scored goals on shots from the point and Blinkhorn scored on a breakaway as well., Lucas Hildebrand tipped in a beauty to start the third making it 3-2 and Stefen Seel deflected the Riders first goal. Austin Evans also caught Wood out of the picture and scored his first of 2 on a wrap around. The officials missed a few off sides as well including Revy's fourth goal. And just as it has been all season.... the new head shot rule is virtually off the books.
Fernie had territory for most of the game but Revelstoke is dangerous and have lots of guys who can skate and have fast hands, you wouldn't want to face thes guys in the first round. See the Game summary here Dylan Robertson and TJ Christensen had a spirited entertaing bout in the third.

In other news the Kimberley Dynamiters lost 6-3 in Beaver Valley with Mason "Spear" scoring 2. Game sheet here Did Todd Slash and Garry Boarding get any points?

And in Castlegar Tyler Robinson scored in OT to give the Rebels a 4-3 win over Creston, Scott Morisseau and 3 points and an assist on the GW SHEET HERE
With the loss Creston is destined for a third place finish see the standings here

Todd Sykes and Joe Colborne both had 4 points as Invermere defeats Spokane 6-5 in the Valley Gamesheet here they are now 3-36.

Some action in first place Princeton's 7-4 win in Kelowna see the PIM's here

This Week's Fernie Free Press Off the Glass Column

2012-01-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Riders spotted Golden 3-0 and 4-2 leads but scored 3 nice goals in the third for a 5-4 win last Friday night here in Fernie. The Riders player of the month for December, Brendan Burge scored the game winner and had 6 points on the weekend. Also last Friday, two top players, Marty Wicks (Photo) and Kyle Garcia had an excellent center ice UFC main event.

The Ghostriders graduated Nick Tupper to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the Jr. “A” BCHL last week. Rider Coach Will Verner says “This promotion is a great opportunity for the 18 year old 6'4 defenseman from Calgary. Nick has a tremendous amount of potential and his new team is getting an unbelievable kid”.

With the new carding rules Verner gets a card back and now can bring in two players before January 10^th. By the time you read this the Riders may very well have added to the roster for their tough weekend featuring a home game against Revelstoke on Friday and a trip to Nelson on Saturday.

Here’s what happens when you have a good local rivalry, Fernie was in Kimberley on December 29^th and 1211 fans attended the game, a week later 200 fans came out to watch Golden. Fernie had a sell-out (1240) Dec. 30 for the Nitros and 777 for Golden last Friday.

The Alumni game raised $30,000 for two Fernie locals who are battling Cancer. The event organizers were Barb Anderson and Stella Hutchinson and their effort was outstanding. There is a great photo slide show of the event taken by Matt Kuhn linked on the Ghostriders web site, there’s lots of kids in the photos.

The Storm’s top scorer Colten De Frias (91) was in the Kamloops newspaper last week, he was charged with assault after a bar fight in October. Storm GM Barry Dewar has no plans to discipline De Frias, because, he says “it was a non team activity”, proving once again that pretty girls and top scorers live on a different planet.

Despite having a poll on their website where most voters said sell and relocate the team, the 1-36 Grand Forks Border Bruins have issued a statement saying they are not folding and/or relocating the team to 100 Mile House, and, they are even looking for a new Coach to fire, I mean run the team next season.

Ghostriders still have room for one more player and play Revelstoke at home on Friday

2012-01-11T15:06:00.004-07:00

Fernie Ghostrider Press Release from GM Will Verner
We are very happy with what transpired on Tuesday as sometimes the best move is no move at all. We feel we have a deep club up front and our defense is as good as any team at our level. We felt if we could not make a significant impact to our club we would stick with our team. Derek Georgopolous and Connor McLaughlin have missed significant time and as they come back to the line-up our club will get a spark. We do have one card open and can add a non-carded player between now and February 10. It is possible to pick up an impact player as last year we added Connor Mclaughlin and during the 2008-2009 season we added high scoring Jesse Niemi. Any player we do pick up will have to be a non-carded player as of January 10, 2012.

Fridays Game

The Ghostriders play the Revelstoke Grizzlies for the second time this year on Friday. The Riders lost 3-2 back on October 29^th in Revelstoke.

The Grizzlies won both of their games last weekend 5-3 in Sicamous and 13-3 at home against Kimberley. Five players had 5 points in that game Cole Sanford, Michael Roberts and Riley Spraggs were the players. The Grizzlies are 8-1-0-1 in their last ten games and if they win the three games they have in hand they could pass Kamloops for first place in their division. STANDINGS HERE The Grizzlies have a tough weekend, after Friday they go to Kimberley then on Sunday they are in Creston. Grizz coach Randy Quakenbush considers Friday’s game to be a bit of a benchmark test for his team. The Grizzlies average 5.29 goals a game while Fernie has one of the best goals against averages in the league at 2.73. It could be an interesting chess match.

The Ghostriders won both of their games last weekend over the Golden Rockets, 5-4 at home and 7-1 in Golden. Chris Solecki had the wins in net. The Ghostriders KIJHL Nominee for the Player of the month Brendan Burge had 6 points last weekend and leads the team in scoring with 59 points. He came to Fernie from Revelstoke in November. The Ghostriders are 6-2-0-2 in their last ten games and are in first place but the Nitros are in hot pursuit. The Riders travel to Nelson Saturday and that game is scheduled as a Drive 99.1 radio broadcast. The Leafs just got what was their top scorer back from Jr "A". read the Martin's story here Nelson won here in Fernie 3-2 in OT back on November 10th.

Here’s what happens when you have a good local rivalry, Fernie was in Kimberley on December 29^th and 1211 fans attended the game, a week later 200 fans came out to watch Golden. Fernie had a sell-out (1240) Dec. 30 for the Nitros and 777 for Golden last Friday.
If you haven’t seen it yet there is a photo slide show of the Alumni Game posted on the Ghostriders web site, the photos are by Matt Kuhn.

ALSO The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Jordie Cool, 1992, to the Dawson Creek Jr. Canucks in the Northwest Junior Hockey League for future considerations. We thank Jordie for his time in Fernie and wish him well with his new team in Dawson Creek.

Dynamiters get blown away in Revelstoke and the Cats cough up a furball

2012-01-08T21:11:00.002-07:00

Kimberley lost 13-3 in Revelstoke see the game summary here Three Grizz Players had 5 points. With the loss the Nitros have lost one of their games in hand but still have 3 .... They also lost in Kamloops see the standings here And our friends in Creston lost to Golden (it was the Rockets third game in a row) despite out shootin em 37-13 Gamesheet

Creston can't afford to lose any if they want to get second and the Nitros are on the ropes but Fernie has to play Revelstoke here in Fernie on Friday then travel to play the always tough Leafs on Saturday.
Meanwhile the Riders won both games vs Golden last weekend 5-4 and 7-1.

Riders win 5-4 vs Golden

2012-01-06T21:51:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders spotted Golden 3 goals in the first before scoring 2 in the second but were still down 4-2. In the third Fernie scored three nice goal scorer type of goals goals for the win Alex Milhouse, Brendon Mangon and Brendan Burge (GW) scored those goals. . Wicks and Garcia (2 goals) had an unbelievable fight in the second. Full gamesheet here

This Week's Free Press Story--the science is de-coded- and some numbers from Christmas

2012-01-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

It costs a few hundred thousand to run the hockey team every year so sometimes you have to make tough decisions, like agreeing to four games in four nights at Christmas. Last year the boys won all four, this year they lost all four but managed two points and most importantly drew crowds of 957 for Creston, and 1240, a sell-out, for Kimberley. The Nitros had 1211 when Fernie played there. These games will go a long way to financing both teams. Creston insisted on playing at 7:30 and only drew 300 for New Year’s Eve. Fernie wanted to play earlier, so did the Creston fans.

Concussions are the big story in contact sports right now and they have been an underreported problem for years, but could we have a breakthrough? The latest concussion theory news comes from University of Toronto anaesthesiologist Dr. Joseph Fisher who says that a collar no tighter than a set of headphones worn around the neck during games would create a sort of “airbag” in the skull to save the brain from concussions.

Well enough Doctor talk, what he means is that the brain is fuelled like a diesel engine and fuel (blood) goes into the engine (brain) through one line (jugular vein) then what doesn’t get used goes back out in a different return line (also a jugular) to the fuel tank, or heart for all the scientists who regularly peer review this column. So what Fisher did with a small collar was to restrict the return line (jugular) on some rats thus keeping a little extra blood in their heads so the brain wouldn’t have room to bang around. So now when he throws them against the boards at the local rink their brains don’t crash around against their skulls nearly as much as they normally would. Well maybe he doesn’t test them exactly like that, but he has had success and he thinks something as simple as a little collar would work on humans, or even hockey players.

Could this be the answer to the age old question of why some athletes are far more vulnerable to concussions than others, do some people naturally retain a little more brain shielding blood in their skulls? This is a very intriguing theory, here’s hoping what works for rats works for humans, it does in some workplaces.

Riders play Golden this weekend and a few other things

2012-01-03T09:36:00.001-07:00

The Ghostriders play the Golden Rockets Friday night then travel to Golden on Saturday for the second half of a home and home with the Rockets. These two teams played each other just before Christmas, Fernie won 5-4 in O/T in Golden and 5-1 at home here in Fernie. The Ghostriders last game was a 4-3 overtime loss in Creston on New Year’s Eve. That game saw the return of Connor McLaughlin (photo) to the Rider line-up. Connor scored the first goal in that game and he is the Subway Goal of the Week award winner. Alex Milhouse scored two goals in the Creston game and is this week’s Tim Horton’s Player of the Week. Milhouse has points in 24 of the 27 games he has played in this year for a total of 40 points. Alex had 45 pts in 38 games last season. The McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week was Brendan Burge and Burge was also the Boston Pizza and Fernie’s nominee for the KIJHL, Player of the Month.

Ghostrider Press Release
The Fernie Ghostriders are happy to announce that defensemen Nick Tupper has been recruited to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL. This promotion is a great opportunity for the 18 year old 6'4 defenseman from Calgary. Nick has a tremendous amount of potential and his new team is getting an unbelievable kid. We thank Nick for his time in Fernie and wish him luck with his new team the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.

The rules say that Fernie gets Nick's card back so they now have two cards left to add to the roster and judging by the last four games Fernie is very close and a couple of players and a little better team play could make the difference between winning the division or not. The Nitros have 5 games in hand and will likely finish in first. Standings here Creston has the same 5 games in hand but are too far behind and will likely finish 3rd, they will be misery for whoever meets them in the first round.

Tupper moves up

2012-01-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders are happy to announce that defensemen Nick Tupper has been recruited to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL. This promotion is a great opportunity for the 18 year old 6'4 defenseman from Calgary. Nick has a tremendous amount of potential and his new team is getting an unbelievable kid. We thank Nick for his time in Fernie and wish him luck with his new team the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.

Lots of fans unhappy that the Riders had to play 4 games in 4 nights, but it was a suce$$ here's the reasoning.

2012-01-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

It costs a few hundred thousand to run the hockey team every year (we’ll have lots more info on that subject in April after the Annual General Meeting) and money is a huge consideration in scheduling and sometimes you have to make tough decisions, like agreeing to four games in four nights at Christmas. Last year the boys won all four games but this year they lost all four only managing two points in the OT losses. Now the reason why Fernie agrees to play 4 in 4 . December 28 when Creston was here the Riders drew a crowd of 957 and then two nights later there were 1240 at the rink, a sell-out, for the Kimberley game. The Dynamiters had 1211 when Fernie played there, not a complete sell-out in that rink, but I’ll guarantee the Nitro board members were happy. These games will go a long way to financing both teams. Creston for the record insisted on playing at 7:30 and only drew 300 for their New Year’s Eve party. Fernie wanted to play earlier, so apparently, did the Creston fans.

Personally I don't like the 4 games in a row but I also don't like the cheap skape scheduling that keeps teams like Osoyoos from playing here in Fernie in the regular season. It's unfortunately all about the money.

Riders lose 4-0

2011-12-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Fernie lost 4-0 to Kimberley and now travel to Creston for their 4th game in 4 nights. But 1140 fans went to the game in Fernie and the same in Kimberley. GAMESHEET

Dozens of photos from the Alumni Game courtesy of Matt Kuhn

2011-12-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Matt Kuhn Photos click here

Riders lose 5-3 to Creston

2011-12-28T22:27:00.002-07:00

957 fans watched as the Ghostriders out shot Creston 38-26 but ended up losing a 5-3 decision. The fourth Creston goal was on a disastrous puck handling display by Chris Solecki and the Cats shot it into an empty net. That would prove costly as the Riders scored after that and the game would have been tied at 3. Creston finished up with an empty netter. Solecki made a few big saves but overall never had his best outing. The Riders goals were off the sticks of Alex Milhouse, Ty Morton and Brendan Burge. Creston is a good team this season and will be a tough team to beat at home on New Year's Eve. Fernie now has a home and home with Kimberley starting tomorrow night in Kimberley @ 7:00 and Friday here in Fernie.

See the game summary here

The Alumni Teams click for large view

2011-12-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Riders play Creston Wednesday night here in Fernie @7:30

2011-12-27T07:58:00.003-07:00

The Ghostriders play Creston on Wednesday, this will be the fourth time this season these teams have played. So far the Ghostriders are 3-0. Creston is in third place and barring a total collapse of either Fernie or Kimberley they will end up in third. Creston has a 6-3-0-1 record in their last ten games and their last two games before the Christmas break were a 7-5 win and a 3-1 loss to the Kimberley Dynamiters. An interesting Creston stat, forward Brandon Formosa has played 30 games and has had points in 28 of them. Creston just acquired Mark Ferguson from Summerland, Wendesday will be his first game as a Thundercat.

The Ghostriders coaching staff allowed several players who live far away to miss the two Golden games last week so they could get back to see their families for Christmas. The remaining players defeated Golden 5-4 in OT in Golden and 5-1 here in Fernie. In the 5-1 game Brendan Burge was in on all the goals scoring 2 and adding 3 assists. In the OT game in Golden defenseman Marty Wicks scored the GW, it was his fifth game winner this year. Dylan Mitchell got the win in net in Golden and Fraser Abdallah got the win here at home. After the two wins the Ghostriders are now in first place but Kimberley has three games in hand. The hated Nitros will host the Ghostriders Thursday night at 7:00 and then play here in Fernie Friday night. Meanwhile after Wednesday’s game Creston will get to rest up for two days before their New Year’s Eve rematch against the Riders.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of #15 Andrew White, 1992, to the Saanich Braves of the VIJHL for future consideration and have signed Cole Conway, 1993 from Calgary Alberta. Cole has been playing this season with the Flin Flon Bombers in the SJHL and he spent the 2010-2011 season with the Calgary Buffalo midget AAA team. Cole is a left handed forward who is 6' and 185 pounds. Cole scored his first goal in Golden in the 5-4 OT game.

The Alumni Game held last week raised $30,000 dollars for the families a special thanks to Barb Anderson and Stella Hutchinson for their tremendous effort!

Scott Niedermayer and Santa at the Alumni game

Coach Don Siska and some of his charges

Alumni Coaches Mike Rousselle and Chris Moulton

Last Week's Fernie Free Press Column --Defectors, Bears,Scrooges and Spiritus

2011-12-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders played the defenceless Columbia Valley Rockies twice last weekend outscoring them 26-2 and outshooting them 103 to 31. The point hogs in the two games were Dylan Robertson and Josh McSkimming with 8 and our two Invermere defectors, Stefen Seel 7 and RT Rice with 9. Three players had a 5 point game, Rice a 7 pointer and Chris Solecki earned a shutout.

The Riders will have a week off before embarking on a hideous four games in four nights starting at home against Creston on the 28^th in Kimberley on the 29^th then the next night battle Kimberley again in Fernie and then as if that’s not enough, they spend New Year’s Eve in Creston.

The 2011/12 team will not play in the Alumni game on the 23^rd but will be around to host it. The game is a charity event with lots of names from the past and this year it’s for the families of Dalton Hutchinson and Shelly Moulton who are currently fighting cancer.

The Ghostriders had their Teddy Bear Toss night last Friday and they collected a pickup truck full of bears mitts and toques for the Salvation Army. Everything went well in Fernie but it didn’t on the Island where the home town Victoria Scrooges lost 4-0 then at the end of the game angrily went to their dressing room while the fans tossed their teddy bears on the ice. The visiting Powell River players stayed back and picked up the bears. Yeah cause winning a junior hockey game is so important, if ever a coach needed to be fired.

And finally, our congratulations go out to Anita Palmer who received the 2011 George Majic Spiritus Award last Monday night at City Hall. Palmer earned the award for her twenty plus years in local hockey where she varied between President, Vice president, Treasurer, Chairperson, Manager, Disciplinarian and even Gatekeeper with Fernie Minor Hockey , East Kootenay Minor Hockey, the Best Ever and Under 17 BC Cup . She also bullied us around (the Ghostriders executive) for 10 years as a Vice President then as Treasurer. Anita has volunteered at different levels for these groups since 1987 and last year was the Chair for the Cyclone Taylor Cup. Another Ghostriders connection to all this is the late George Majic who was the first Rider President and a founding father of the organization.

Riders regain first

2011-12-22T05:36:00.001-07:00

Brendan Burge (photo) leads the way with 5 points in the Riders 5-1 win over the Golden Rockets.The boys played very well and dominated the Rockets despite having eight regulars out of the lineup. Fraser Abdallah made his first appearance in a Ghostrider net and looked pretty good and can really clear the zone with his wrist shot and Evan Burgess scored his first since returning in November when his hunting guide job ended. . Read the game sheet for all the scoring here
With the two wins Fernie regains first place but Kimberley has games in hand. STANDINGS HERE
The standings could change next week see the schedule here

Riders win 5-4 in double O/T

2011-12-21T06:07:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders went into Golden Tuesday night and went down 2-0 in the first three minutes. Bryden Marsh from Connor Beauchemin and Brett DeFrias scored first and Kyle Garcia from Riley Henderson and Aidan Nisse scored on the PP. Three minutes into the second they were down 3-0 when Connor Beauchemin scored from Shane Rutherford . After that it was Fernie’s turn Cole Conway scored his first as a Ghostrider from Carson Brown and Ben Primeau to make it 3-1 but Kyle Garcia from Brad Orr and Darren Andre restored the Rocket lead to 4-1 just minutes later. Halfway through the second Carson Brown scored from Stefen Seel and the period ended 4-2.

In the third it was all Ghostriders as they out shot Golden 18-5 and Matt Carr from Brendan Burge scored to make it 4-3 then with just 19 second left and the goaltender pulled Ben Primeau from Brendan Burge and Marty Wicks tied the game at 4-4.

The game went into double OT before Marty Wicks from Zach Traverse scored on the PP to win the game. It was Wicks’ 4 th game winner. Dylan Mitchell got the win in net although the game sheet says different. Expect the sheet to change later in the day, possibly several things will change.

GAMESHEETHERE the shots were 50-26 and Fernie won in O/T notice the game stars ????

Riders movin and shakin

2011-12-20T14:28:00.001-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Andrew White, 1992, to the Saanich Braves of the VIJHL for future considerations. We thank Andrew for his time in Fernie and wish him well with his new team.

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to announce the signing of Cole Conway, 1993 from Calgary Alberta. Cole has been playing this season with the Flin Flon Bombers in the SJHL and he spent the 2010-2011 season with the Calgary Buffalo midget AAA team. Cole is a left handed forward who is 6' and 185 pounds. Cole will make his Ghostrider debut December 20 vs. the Golden Rockets. We welcome Cole to the Ghostriders.

Anita Palmer is the 2011 George Majic Spiritus Award Winner-click the photos for a larger image

2011-12-19T19:24:00.002-07:00

Our congratulations go out to Anita Palmer who received the 2011 George Majic Spiritus Award Monday night at City Hall. Anita is wearing the blue dress and Ann Majic is to her right side.

Palmer earned the award for her twenty plus years in local hockey where she varied between President, Vice president, Treasurer, Chairperson, Manager, Disciplinarian and even Gatekeeper with Fernie Minor Hockey , East Kootenay Minor Hockey, the Best Ever and Under 17 BC Cup . She also bullied us around (the Ghostriders executive) for 10 years as a Vice President then as Treasurer. Anita has volunteered at different levels for these groups since 1987 and last year was the Chair for the Cyclone Taylor Cup. Another Ghostriders connection to all this is the late George Majic who was the first Rider President and a founding father of the organization.

Anita and her son Mark who played 5 seasons with the Jr A Ghostriders

Phil Iddon hands the award to Anita

Anita and her family

2011-12-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesdays’s Game

Wednesday we see the Golden Rockets play here in Fernie in the second game of a home and home. The Ghostriders play in Golden Tuesday night. Before this series the Ghostriders were 2-0 vs the Rockets. Golden lost 4-2 to Sicamous last Friday and 7-3 to Revelstoke last Saturday.

The Ghostriders played the defenceless Columbia Valley Rockies twice last weekend outscoring them 26-2 and outshooting them 103 to 31. The point hogs in the two games were Dylan Robertson and Josh McSkimming with 8 and our two Invermere defectors, Stefen Seel 7 and RT Rice with 9. Three players had a 5 point game, Rice a 7 pointer and Chris Solecki earned a shutout. The scores were 14-2 at home and 12-0 on the road in Invermere.

Several Ghostriders have gone home early for Christmas and just as many AP's will dress for the next two games. We will up date as we hear exactly who will play. We do know that Ty Morton, Chris Solecki, Connor McLaughlin, Austin Evans and Easton Bodeux will not be in the lineup fot the next couple of games.

December 23rd the Fernie Ghostriders are hosting a Ghostrider alumni hockey event featuring players from past Ghostrider teams and current Peewee players.
The players are teaming up to raise money for two Fernie locals who are currently battling Cancer. Peewee hockey player Dalton Hutchinson and Shelley Moulton are currently in treatment in Calgary battling Cancer. Money raised at the event will be donated to help these two families in a time of need.
Enjoy a great community event Friday December 23 @7:30pm. Admission will be $5 or by donation. Bring some loose money as well as there will be several draw items to buy tickets for to raise money for the event. Prizes will include World Junior hockey tickets, golf passes and many more great prizes.

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to support please mail cheques to Fernie Ghostriders, Box 178, Fernie BC V0B 1M0. or drop off at Fernie Auto Parts.

Riders defeat Invermere 14-2

2011-12-17T06:00:00.001-07:00

Josh McSkimming with 3 G and 2 A leads the way for the Riders and they once again pound the Rockies by a big score. Stefan Seel also had a hat trick . See all the scoring HERE
In other news the Creston Thunder Cats won 7-5 at home vs Kimberley Creston's Jesse Collins who is newly acquired from Spokane had 5 points.
Creston and Fernie's win changes the standings a bit see here Creston is keepin pace and in the last couple of months Fernie will play mostly division games.

Mason Spear with the best name in hockey scores 2, one a SH goal as BV leaves Nelson with a 4-3 win. Gamesheet here, What's with the shots being only in the 20's guys.....
Some action in Princetons 5-3 home win against Kamloops in the first, but then they settled down. Gamesummaryhere
http://www.kijhl.ca/leagues/hockey_boxscores.cfm?clientID=2223&leagueID=5221&gameID=982142

Some holiday spirit in Castlegar's 7-5 road win in Kelowna

Grand Forks loses 8-5 to Spokane but they don't go down without a fight gamesheet here

Osoyoos wins 8-4 vs Pentiction, will they repeat

The Three Wise Men, Packed Rinks and We`re goin to 100 Mile House next year.

2011-12-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

After some of the reaction to last week’s column we now know for certain that it’s not the “Three Wise Men” who are commenting and writing on the blog sites. The Three Stooges maybe, but not the Wise Men. Anyway it was great to read all the venom spat anonymously on the internet and here we’re betting that on December 29^th in Kimberley and on the 30^th in Fernie the rinks will be packed to the rafters. My work here is done. Believe it or not a healthy wealthy and wise (well not wise) Kimberley actually helps Fernie. The Nitro’s attendance has been down for a few years but it is better this season and both teams always attract big crowds when they play each other. Good rivalry, good crowds and low travel miles, show me the money.

The Ghostriders beat Sicamous 5-3 last weekend. New players Ben Primeau and Carson Brown both scored their first goals while Fraser Abdallah sat out with an injury and AP Dylan Mitchell was the backup. Without any superstars this year the Riders will have to tighten up their defensive game, most of them think score first instead of defence first and they give up too many good scoring chances needlessly. Next up, two games against Invermere and they should be a gimme. Well maybe not, just ask Creston who thought they had a fancy meal coming but ended up at the Salvation Army and lost 6-5 a couple of weeks ago. They gave the Rockies just their second win this year.

And finally, Tom Bachynski who is the President of the 100 Mile House Wranglers was telling everyone last summer that he wanted a KIJHL team and he said that a few existing teams were considering relocating to his town. A couple of weeks ago we had another update from Bachynski who is now saying that he is 98% certain he will get one of those aforementioned teams for next season. Bachynski is so confident Santa’s bringing him a team that he’s selling season’s tickets as we speak and he has already booked the ice for the Wranglers spring camp. For obvious reasons our secrete agent won’t say what team he’s negotiating with, but… if your team has consistently small crowds…you may want to keep an eye out for a guy wearing a mask.

Riders vs Rockies this weekend, Teddy Bear Toss on Friday

2011-12-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Friday’s Game

Friday we have the Columbia Valley Rockies in town for the second time this year. The Rockies were in Fernie on November 24^th and lost 9-3. So far the Riders are 3-0 vs the Rockies and they will travel to Invermere Saturday for part two of this weekend’s home and home. The Rockies top player is Joe Colborne who is scoring 1.3 points a game. Former Ghostrider goalie Scott Legault was traded to the Rockies to make room for Fraser Abdallah, but no word on if either goalie is starting tonight. Invermere scoring HERE

The Ghostriders defeated the Sicamous Eagles 5-3 last Saturday but finished last weekend tied with the surging Kimberley Dynamiters for first place. On Monday the Nitros won their eightieth anniversary game 5-4 against Nelson and took over first place so the Ghostriders need these two games to keep pace. Kimberley has a game in hand. STANDINGS HERE Ghostrider scoring HERE

Injuries, the Riders will be without Derek Georgopoulos, Connor McLaughlin, Nick Tupper, Fraser Abdallah and Andrew White (suspended) tonight.

On Friday night it will be Teddy Bear Toss Night sponsored by Canadian Tire. When your Fernie Ghostriders score their first goal Friday night throw a Teddy bear, Mitts and or Toques onto the ice. The team will then get the items to the local Salvation Army to be given to local kids in need.

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to support please mail cheques to Fernie Ghostriders, Box 178, Fernie BC V0B 1M0. or drop off at Fernie Auto Parts.

Nitros are in first

2011-12-12T07:41:00.003-07:00

With a 10-3 win over the Sicamous Eagles the Kimberley Dynamiters have taken over first place in the division even though at 44 points they are tied with the Riders they still have two games in hand and play one of them tonight at home against Nelson. The Nitros also have the best goals against average league wide at 2.36 and are second in average goals scored at 5.61. BV leads the KIJHL with a 6.48 average. STANDINGS HERE The Nitros also have players listed in the top twenty scoring race as well. SCORING HERE and Creston's Jesse Collins (from Spokane) is right up there as well.

In other news fightin is alive and well in the CHL

And the Lawyers and parents are even f*#*in up hockey
This may be the USHL, don't spear their goalie

Riders win 5-3 against Sicamous

2011-12-11T06:15:00.001-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders got a much needed 5-3 win at home against the Sicamous Eagles on Saturday night. The Riders spotted the Eagles two goals Connor Buick from Brayden Taekema and Brendan Devries in the first and Corbin Marcotte from Brett Trofanenko in the first minute of the second period. Coach Verner called a time out then then his charges gradually took over scoring two quick goals a couple of minutes later, Derek Georgopoulos from Josh McSkimming and Brendan Burge and Ben Primeau with his first goal in his first game from Carson Brown and Austin Evans.

In the third about 4 minutes in - Matt Carr from Derek Georgopoulos and Alex Milhouse scored to make it 3-2 then Matt Reed from Corbin Marcotte tied the game at 3-3- before Marty Wicks from Derek Georgopoulos and Alex Milhouse scored on the PP to make it 4-3. Carson Brown with his first as a Rider scored in the EN from Brendon Mangone. Chris Solecki stopped 23 of 26 for the win in the Rider net and Kris Drott stopped 42 of 46 in the loss for the Eagles.

The Riders Play Sicamous Tonight

2011-12-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders play Sicamous tonight and will be desperate for a win after losing three in a row. Sicamous lost 7-2 in Creston last night, see the game sheet here and they have to play in Fernie tonight and in Kimberley on Sunday where they will likely be easy pickins for the hi scoring Nitros who could take first place from the Riders in the standings (click here ) if they lose tonight. The Nitros are in Columbia Valley tonight and the odds are overwhelming that they will win, but it's possible to lose there, just ask these guys from Creston click here who lost there last Tuesday giving the Rockies their second win on the season.

Hotheads, tong wars, garbage cans all speaking out

2011-12-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Off the Glass from the pages of this weeks Fernie Free Press

On Friday against Beaver Valley the Riders had leads of 3-1 and 5-3 but couldn’t hold on to either and eventually lost what was a fun game to watch, 6-5 in double overtime. Alex Milhouse scored the 5^th goal that eventually gave the Riders a point, it was hi-light reel goal. On Saturday BV slaughtered the Riders 7-1 then on Sunday Fernie lost 4-2 in Spokane. They sure miss Connor McLaughlin.

The Ghostriders beefed up by signing Carson Brown and Ben Primeau last week. Both forwards are over 6’ and eat about 190 pound steaks. These larger players are always invaluable at playoff time. Coach Verner also signed former Rider goalie Fraser Abdallah who was in Kindersley of the SJHL. Fraser will challenge Chris Solecki for the #1 spot in net. These moves should make the Ghostriders a better and tougher team.

There is still some smoke in the air from the Kimberley game a couple of weeks ago and some nasty comments on the blog sites about Wicks, Mangone, Traverse and Burgess and the suspensions they received. Here we think it’s a long season and in the end most fans will be happy to have these warriors for the next gong show that the history books say is inevitable again this year. The Ghostriders play Kimberley and Creston several more times and they hate Fernie. Yeah they hate, the other divisions also have their tong wars as well so get over it, it’s hockey, in the 1990’s we had a gong show every two weeks. Funny how no one is screaming about the Nitro fans throwing everything they could at the Riders including a garbage can. The Fernie fans used to be like that as well, until they put up the glass and mesh. So is the mesh to keep the pucks in… or the garbage cans out?

And finally, it has been brought to my attention over and over again that Nitro hothead coach Roman Vopat was taunting the Fernie players from the safety his bench. He even took off his jacket like he was actually going to fight the “teenagers” on the ice. So Roman, was that your Czech interpretation of the Hockey Canada “Speak Out/Respect in Sport” clinic you were obviously “forced” to take, or just the “I played in the NHL so whatever I do is right version”.

The new colours

2011-12-07T21:15:00.002-07:00

The Cranbrook midget team features several Elk Valley players.

2011-12-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

We talked with Cranbrook Midget Ice Coach Glenn Burgess the other day and Glenn tells me that without all the Elk Valley kids on the Cranbrook team they may not have had enough players to even ice a team. A few years ago Cranbrook used to have 100 players trying out for their team, this season less than thirty, including our EV boys. All this and four teams want in to the KIJHL ???

Anyway, a couple of the Ghostrider affiliate players are leading the Ice in scoring and Fernie’s Matt McArthur top photo is the Captain. Glenn’s son Joel was playing with the Riders in the Beaver Valley game and he is leading the team in scoring. Joel's 15 yr. old brother Dan played the week before against Grand Forks. STATS AND ROSTER HERE

Some photos below hope I didn't miss any EV players

Joel Burgess

Jeff Raymon

Randy Teeple

Brendan Bell

Colby Burns

Nathan Lunzar Purdy

Dan Burgess

Dylan Mitchell

The Ghostriders were blasted 7-1 Saturday in BV

2011-12-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

Read Kevin's (Hawks Nest) write up on the games here also see the Fernie BV game sheet here
A rested Brendon Mangone should be available for the Spokane game this afternoon and Ben Primeau was announced for next weekend. Connor McLaughlin is also possible in the next week or so.

Kamloops' life without Stanwood aint so good they lose 6-2 in Creston read all the misconducts here
Pentiction 4 is one of the most improved teams and Kelowna 3 is the opposite their game sheet from last night here
Spokane's Zak Kroll scores 2 and 1A as the Braves defeat Princeton 3-2 Spokane is coming on and could be trouble for the Riders this afternoon. Spok-Prince game sheet here
The Nitros also won 5-0 in CVR and may catch Fernie in the standings when they play their games in hand.

Ghostriders lost 6-5 in double OT to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks

2011-12-03T05:53:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders played the first place (in the Neil Murdoch Division) Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Friday night and lost in double O/T. The Riders had a couple of good leads in this game, 3-1 in the second and 5-3 in the third but couldn’t hold on to either and eventually lost in double overtime when Chris Derochie scored unassisted.

Fairly well played game in the first two periods (from a coaching perspective ) and the Riders were leading 3-2 but in the third anything goes was the story. There were weak goals allowed, highlight reel goals scored and glaring defensive errors, but it was sure fun to watch and who was going to win was always in question. When Fernie’s Alex Milhouse scored the 5^th goal (a highlight reel breakaway goal) the fans relaxed and at 5-3 with 8:24 left on the clock things were lookin good for the Riders. But BV scored 14 second later then Tyler Collins added a PP goal to tie the game with 5:18 left.

The Hawks Tyler Collins had 2 G 1A, Ryan Edwards scored his 20-21^st while Dallas Calvin passed the puck around for a goal and 3 assists. Zach Perehudoff got the win in net for the Hawks.

The Ghostriders Derek Georgopoulos scored the first 2 goals and came close to a third but was hauled down on his beast scoring chance and it didn’t happen. Alex Milhouse with 2 and Zach Traverse with a goal rounded out the scoring for the Riders. Brendan Burge had 3 assists and Chris Solecki took the loss in net. View the game sheet here Carson Brown played his first game as a Ghostrider and had an assist. His large frame is definitely needed here in Fernie.

The single point helps the Riders keep pace with the Nitros who tied Kamloops 5-5 on Goaltender Friday in the Kootenay's. Standings here, Nitros have 3 games in hand

Ghostriders get bigger up front and a little better in net

2011-12-01T23:00:00.001-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of goaltender Scott Legault 1994 to the Columbia Valley Rockies for future considerations. We thank Scott for his time in Fernie and wish him well with his new team.

The Fernie Ghostriders have acuired the CHA playing rights of Carson Brown from the Calgary Canucks of the AJHL. Carson has split time this year between the Canmore Eagles and the Calgary Canucks. Carson will be in the line-up Friday night when we host the Beaver Valley Nighthawks. Carson, an 18 year old from Calgary, is 6'1, 190 and a right shot.

SEASON	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	P/G	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	PIM
2011-2012	Canmore Eagles	8	1	0	1	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	11
2011-2012	Calgary Canucks	12	2	2	4	0.3	0	0	0	0	0	16
2010-2011	Canmore Eagles	45	1	2	3	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	43
CAREER TOTALS		65	4	4	8	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	70

Goalie Stats - Fraser Abdallah
The Fernie Ghostriders welcome back local Fernie goalie Fraser Abdallah. Fraser has spent the first three months of this season with the Kindersley Klippers of the SJHL. Welcome home Fraser. Fraser will be dressed Friday and will look to make his first appearance in a Rider uniform later this weekend when we visit Beaver Valley or in Spokane against the Braves. Welcome home Fraser.

Season	Team	GP	GA	Mins	Saves	GAA	SV%	W	L	SOL	T	SO
Regular Season Stats
2011-12 Regular Season	Kindersley Klippers	14	45	844	379	3.20	0.894	4	8	1	0	1
	TOTALS	14	45	844	379	3.20	0.894	4	8	1	0	1

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to announce that Ben Primeau will re-join the team on Friday as he has been out with an injury suffered in our first exhibition game against the Beaver Valley Nighthawks. Ben has been cleared to play and will make his Rider debut next weekend against the Sicamous Eagles. Ben spent the 2010-2011 season with the Calgary Canucks. Welcome back Ben.

Ghostriders open up two roster spots

2011-12-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing righs of Taylor Carriveau, 1993 to the Spokane Braves for future considerations. The Fernie Ghostriders wish Taylor well with his new team and thank him for his time in Fernie.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Reto Stiz, 1993 to the Oceanside Generals. This deal clears up futures owed to Oceanside for the Ty Morton deal in December 2010. We really enjoyed having Reto in Fernie and wish him well with his new team the Oceanside Generals.

Beaver Valley is in Fernie on Friday

2011-11-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders play the first place (in the Neil Murdoch Division) Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Friday night here in fernie . After last weekend the Hawks had a 21-5 record and were 4 points ahead of the second place Nelson leafs with a game in hand.

Beaver Valley has four players in the top twenty in league scoring and first place overall in KIJHL scoring is being battled out between three Nitehawks. Ryan Edwards is currently leading the pack with 58 points, Chris Derochi is second with 54 points and Craig Martin third with 52 points.

The Hawks average 6.54 goals a game and at 170 have scored the most goals in the KIJHL. Their goals against is fairly high for a first place team at 3.27 but they have a PP that scores 28.85% of the time, so expect an exciting fan friendly game Friday. BV won both their games last weekend 7-2 in Golden and 9-3 in Invermere.

BV head coach is Terry Jones, his two sons Connor & Kellen played in BV in 2006/07 at 16 then moved on to the BCHL in Vernon where they won 2 Royal Bank Cups. The brothers were recently voted to the BCHL’s top 50 all time players team click for all the players names.

The Ghostriders coasted to a 9-1 win over Grand Forks last Saturday but lost a penalty filled game in Kimberley by a 4-1 score on Friday. The Riders had five players suspended that night. Zach Traverse, Evan Burgess, Andrew White, Marty Wicks and Brendon Mangone all sat out Saturday along with Connor McLaughlin, Dane Carlson and Alex Milhouse who missed because of injuries. Connor McLaughlin is day to day but Mangone will serve game 2 of his 3 game match penalty for swinging at a player while in the bench in the Kimberley game tonight.

This weeks Fernie Free Press Off the Glass Story

2011-11-27T05:47:00.001-07:00

The Ghostriders lost 4-1 in a gong show hosted by the Kimberley Dynamiters last Friday night. Lots of fights, cheap shots and suspensions by both sides but the Riders dished out some extra ones and earned 5 of the 7 suspensions. If it proved anything it proved that if they want to win the division again for the seventh year in a row, the Rider brass will have to make changes. The teams battle again on December 29 & 30^th for some holiday spirit, but the spirit could be from the movie “The Exorcist”, maybe bring a cross... just to be safe.

Grand Forks’ Coach/GM Brent Batten was gassed after an 0-21 start, that’s harsh, with 31 games left he could have easily won a game. Bruins Assistant Coach Matt Zamec is now the head guy. Last year at 8-41-1 the Bruins removed the successful (at least by their standards) Jesse Dorrans. Yeah I wanna coach in Grand Forks.

In Castlegar Coach/GM Steve Junker piped his (27-9) goalie Alex Ross out to the 8-16 Summerland Steam. Rider fans may remember that it was Junker who traded Andrew Walton to Fernie last year leaving Ross with Walton’s #1 spot. This year Junker made a three way trade that sees the Rebels get Jordan Gluck (6-11) from the Osoyoos Coyotes. Some GM may end up in a leg hold trap if this deal doesn’t work out.

The 22-2-2 Kamloops Storm recently graduated all-star goalie Lyndon Stanwood to the Jr. “A” Trail Smoke Eaters. GM Barry Dewar had been very vocal in the papers saying Stanwood was too good for the KIJHL so he got his wish. Dewar also lost defenseman Shane Poulsen to the 3-16-1 Smoke Eaters earlier this year as well. The swami sees a little white ball when the regular season ends for these Trail guys.

And finally, Austin Evans was hit with a vicious cheap shot by Rockies forward Todd Sykes last Thursday. Sykes ran the unsuspecting Evans hard into the boards when the puck wasn’t anywhere near him and only got a minor penalty. So if dangerous hits like that on unsuspecting players is only a minor … you need to keep fighting in the game. Right about now twenty two Kimberley bobble head dolls are on the dash bobbing their heads up and down in agreement… and Oli Dickson and coach Roman Vopat are driving the bus.

Shorthanded Riders play Grand Forks tonight

2011-11-26T13:25:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders play the Grand Forks Border Bruins tonight. Fernie will be missing a few players due to suspension it may help equalize the two teams. Evan Burgess, Brendon Mangone, Zach Traverse, Andrew White and Marty Wicks are all out tonight after the Kimberley game. Nick Tupper and Connor McLaughlin are out with injuries. Kimberley got off with only two suspensions. Whatever happens tonight the Ghostriders won't be the answer to the trivia question "Who will be the first team to lose to the Bruins" The Columbia Valley Rockies lost 5-4 to the Bruins last night.

Joel Burgess (top photo) and Daniel Burgess (bottom photo) will be in the lineup tonight. Joel will wear #25 and play right wing while Danile will where #7 and play defense. Daniel is a fifteen year-old and is allowed to play a maximum of 5 games.

Riders lose 4-1 in Kimberley

2011-11-26T06:46:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders lost 4-1 to the Kimberley Dynamiters on Friday night. The scores were 2-0 at the end of the first, 2-1 at the end of the second and 4-1 at the end of the game. The game was a gong show freauring five fights a match and a few other five minute penalties. We suspect that the on-line game sheet will be updated later today. We also expect some suspensions especially late in the third when the Nitros crashed the net and Marty Wicks and Zach Traverse both received misconducts etc. and Brendon Mangone got what was termed as a deliberate injury a few seconds later. Last season Nitro Oli Dickson ran Rider goalie Fraser Abdallah at the end of the season knocking him out for weeks, they don’t want to have that happen again. The Nitro announcers on their broadcast were appalled, expect some interesting comments in the next day or so. View all the penalties and scoring here
Suspensions here

The Ghostriders play the Grand Forks Border Bruins tonight. Fernie will be missing a few players due to suspension it may help equalize the two teams. Evan Burgess, Brendon Mangone, Zach Traverse, Andrew White and Marty Wicks are all out tonight. Whatever happens tonight the Ghostriders won't be the answer to the trivia question "Who will be the first team to lose to the Bruins" The Columbia Valley Rockies lost 5-4 to the Bruins last night.

Player news from the Ghostriders Coach Will Verner

2011-11-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have acquired the CHA playing rights of Taylor Carriveau, 1992 from the Nelson leafs for future considerations. Taylor will play for the Ghostriders Friday night against the Kimberley Dynamiters.

Riders win 9-3 vs Invermere

2011-11-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

The Ghostriders won 9-3 on pad your stats night part #1 against Invermere. Part #2 will be played Saturday when Grand Forks comes to Fernie with a pre Christmas bag of points for the needy. Sandwiched in between is a serious game in Kimberley tonight @ 7:00 if the wind doesn’t knock the power out.

Austin Evans had 2 goals (9+10) and an assist and was the victim of a vicious cheap shot delivered by Rockies forward Todd Sykes who ran Evans into the boards in the second when the puck wasn’t anywhere near him. He got 2 for interference but dangerous hits like that on unsuspecting players that only generate a 2 minute penalties undisputedly show why fighting needs to stay in the game. For the record Sykes refused numerous invitations and Nick Tupper even got a misconduct for his continuous attempts to challenge Sykes. Credit the Riders for not just taking a major on him.

The other big point getters were Brendan Burge with a goal and 3 assists, and Connor McLaughlin with a goal an assist. McLaughlin left the game with an injury after blocking a shot in the third. The Riders lose this guy there’ll be problems. Scott Legault got the win in net for the Riders while Travis Beekhuizen took the loss for the Rockies , the shots were 62-19.

See the full scoring summary here

Riders trade Alex Pronchuk back home.

2011-11-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

I know this is a few days old but work ruins everything...The Alex Pronchuk experiment has not worked out for either side. Pronchuk skates and shoots at a junior A level and is one of those players who have all the tools... maybe he needs a change and I'm surprised a KIJHL team didn't try for him. Below is the press release.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Alex Pronchuk, 1992, to the High River Flyers for future considerations. The Ghostriders wish Alex well be re-united with his old, home town team.

Rebels trade their goalie

2011-11-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

FULL STORY HERE

Read Revelstoke's side of the brawl story

2011-11-22T05:53:00.002-07:00

http://www.revelstoketimesreview.com/sports/134278788.html

Solecki shuts out his former team from Armstrong 4-0

2011-11-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

A hot Chris Solecki (photo) gets the 4-0 shutout on a freezing cold Friday against his old team the North Okanagan Knights. The Ghostriders Stefan Seel from Alex Pronchuk and Josh McSkimming scored the Riders first goal on a scramble in front of the net a minute twenty into the game and the boys never looked back. Just a few minutes later Andrew White from Alex Milhouse and Ty Morton turned Knight goalie Dustin Nikkel inside out with their passing while shorthanded to make it 2-0.

In the second R.T. Rice scored from the slot after receiving a nice pass from behind the net from Stefan Seel. Then with 1:52 left on the clock Stefan Seel scored his second goal of the night from Derek Georgopoulos.

In the third there was no scoring but the fans were amused by a couple of fights and one of them was R.T. Rice fighting Brendan Jost after he boarded one of his Invermere brothers Reto Stiz in the corner. In the second Dylan Robertson fought the Knight’s tough guy Ben Greenaway who is 6’3” 200. Robertson is gradually getting better at that sort of thing. The Ghostrider penalty kill was excellent killing all 6 Knight PP’s and they scored a SH goal. The Riders PP went 0-2. The shots were 25- 19 Fernie. View the game sheet here.... photo Stefen Seel he was the second star. Photo below Nick Tupper the third star.

Check out the Kamloops Revelstoke game sheet for a few laughs lots'a PIMS
click here

Coaches Babies,trades & lion tamers

2011-11-17T20:43:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders got an exciting 3-2 double overtime win against the Nelson Leafs last Thursday night. The Riders had so many good scoring chances in just the first period that the game should have been over and the O/T was really one sided featuring several high % Rider scoring PP chances . But Nelson is a talented attacking type of team and they played well in the second and third and late in the third they scared everyone in Fernie with a couple of good chances but couldn’t beat Chris Solecki. In the O/T it actually took a Zach Traverse shot through traffic to finally fool former Rider but now Leaf goalie Andrew Walton. He was pretty good stopping 37 of 40 shots and he gave his team a chance to win, all you can ask of a goalie. He was picked as the first star.

The Nelson Leafs (and for that matter this writer who was looking forward to seeing him play) really missed their star player Patrick Martens (22 goals and 17 assists in 21 games) who went to the BCHL’s Langley Rivermen last week. At 2-2 late in the third a game breaker like Martins could have made a difference. The Leafs did debut JJ Beitel (a former Smoke Eater) in this game and although he was victimised a couple of times (he didn’t remember that some players in this league have BCHL speed and moves) Beitel is a D-man any GM in the K would be happy to add to their roster. All in all an enjoyable game for the 557 Rider fans to see.

After watching the Riders play Nelson in a tame affair here in Fernie two nights later they played an even tamer game against Creston, that’s lion tamer and this game would only have seemed normal if it was played in Kandahar. Lots of shenanigans and suspensions (even the two Field Marshals Verner and Heaven will miss a game) after this one but the Canadian Armed Forces from the Fernie base squeaked out a 5-4 O/T win against the squadron from the Creston battalion . The KIJHL and the BCAHA may not see a victory in these games but the 627 fans sure did. Anyway I bet both teams will have big crowds at their respective bases for their next combat missions.

The Fernie Ghostriders organization sends out congratulations to Coach Will Verner and his wife Kirsten on the birth of their baby girl Annabell. Despite the urgings of this writer and Rider President Phil Iddon the big Canuck fan didn’t name his new daughter Daniel or Henrik. Yeah I know it’s not fair to the brothers…but it’s amusing.

GM Will Verner surprised everyone last week when he snagged a top six center from the Revelstoke Grizzlies for the always vague “future considerations”. Nineteen year old Brendan Burge was actually leading the Grizzlies in scoring with 22 points when he was traded to the Ghostriders. Burge had an assist in his first game against Nelson and he created several scoring chances and with some luck he could of had 5 points. Burge is also considered good enough that he may move up to Jr. ”A” before the year is over and speculation is that’s one of the reasons why he fell out of favour with new Grizzlies’ Coach/GM Randy Quakenbush. So the question is when they made the trade were the Ghostriders thinking of the old saying “ A Burge in hand is worth two in the Quackenbush ”

With lines like that you now know why famous basketball coach Bobby Knight said this about the media he hates so much. “All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things”.

Riders play the North Oak Knights on Friday

2011-11-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

Friday's Game
The North Okanagan Knights are in town for their one and only game this year here on Friday night. The Ghostriders played in Amrstrong September 18^th and they won 5-2. Last week the Knights won 7-3 in Chase then last Thursday they lost 5-4 in Revelstoke on Saturday. The Knights travel to Kimberley Saturday night. Last season the Knights finished up with 38 points, so far this year they have 29 points and are one of the most improved teams.

The Ghostriders got a 3-2 double overtime win at home against the Nelson Leafs last Friday night in front of 557 screaming fans. Leaf goalie Andrew Walton and his posts were outstanding in this game and he was named as first star after stopping 37 of 40 shots. Chris Solecki stopped 15 of 17 Leaf shots and Zach Traverse scored the game winner in double overtime. Brendon Mangone and Austin Evans scored the other goals. On Saturday the Ghostriders defeated Creston 5-4 in overtime in front of more than 600 fans. The Goal scorers in the Creston game were Connor McLaughlin, Stefen Seel, RT Rice and Marty Wicks with two including the OT winner. Chris Solecki had the win in net.

Injuries, Easton Bodeux and Josh McSkimming are day to day and Dane Carlson is still 2-3 weeks away. Marty Wicks is suspended Friday for game misconduct in last 10 minutes of the Creston game.

Players of the Week, the McDonalds’ Practice Player of the Week is RT Rice, the Tim Horton’s Player of the Week is Stefen Seel and the Subway Goal of the week was by Zach Traverse, game winner vs Nelson.

Riders win 5-4 in OT

2011-11-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to see that the Creston Thundercats are quickly becoming Fernie’s most hated rival. Their last two games were penalty filled wars that the Riders won but they had to fight (literally) for the wins and on Saturday it took overtime to get a 5-4 win. Connor McLaughlin, RT Rice and Stefen Seel scored the first three goals but Marty Wicks trumped them all by scoring 2 goals (including the OT game winner his third GW this year) and an assist to go along with his 24penalty minutes. See all the goals and penalties here

Riders win 3-2 in double OT

2011-11-11T07:03:00.002-07:00

The Ghostriders got a 3-2 double overtime win at home against the Nelson Leafs on Friday night in front of 557 screaming fans. Leaf goalie Andrew Walton and his posts were outstanding in this game and he was named as first star after stopping 37 of 40 shots. Chris Solecki stopped 15 of 17 Leaf shots. Zach Traverse (photo) scored the game winner in double O/T.

The Ghostriders had several high % scoring chances in the first and under normal circumstances the game would have been out of reach for the Leafs but Walton kept them in it. In the O/T Fernie had 7 shots and almost all of them were great chances. All Fernie’s top scoring forwards like Connor McLaughlin, Austin Evans, Brendon’s Mangone & Burge, Ty Morton, Marty Wicks, Alex Milhouse and Alex Pronchuk (and I probably missed a couple) had outstanding scoring chances in this game and I can’t even count how many shorthanded breakaways and posts they had.

Anyway, Andrew Walton (photo to the left) was named as the first star, Zach Traverse with the GW the second star and new Rider Brendon Burge who had an assist but could have had 10 points the third star. So if you were wondering about how Burge played… he was outstanding and will pile up the points here in Riderland. As far as the Leafs go they are a great team to watch and have several hi end guys and newcommer JJ Beitel is no sloutch either, just cut from Trail the big strong mobile D man at this level will prove to be a great acquisition for the Leafs after losing top their scorer Patric Martens 22 G's 17A in just 21 games.

The Ghostriders outshot the Leafs 12-3 in the first period and probably 9 of the shots were glorious scoring chances. Brendon Mangone from Alex Milhouse and Matt Carr scored the first goal 14 minutes in then Austin Evans from Ty Morton and Brendan Burge scored on the PP for a 2-0 lead at the end of the first. Photo new Rider Brendon Burge

In the second half of the game Nelson started playing a little better and they scored two goals. Colton Malmsten from Jonathon Petrash and Colton Schell scored the first Leaf goal on the PP in the first then Max Mois from Nik Newman and JJ Beitel tied the game with 5:51 left in the third.

In the two overtimes it was all Fernie and the Ghostriders outshot the Leafs 7-1 before Zach Traverse who fired one in through traffic from the middle near the blue line Ty Morton and Austin Evans had the assists on the 4 on 3 PP. Game sheet here

Around the league… Kyle Garcia had a goal and an assist as the Golden Rockets surprise Kimberley with a 3-2 win in Kimberley. Rocket goalie Cole Henderson was the first star. Gamesheet

Ryan Edwards with 6 points and Tyler Collins with 3G 2A lead the BV Hawks to an amusing 14-2 win at home against Grand Forks. Creston spreads out the scoring with an 8-2 win vs Columbia Valley and Tanner Burns with 4 points lead North Okanagan to a 7-3 win vs Chase. North Oak play in Fernie next Friday

Fernie plays Nelson Thursday and Creston on Saturday

2011-11-08T18:44:00.001-07:00

The Ghostriders play the Nelson Leafs twice this season, Thursday November 10th here in Fernie and in Nelson on January 14.
The Leafs lost 4-2 in Princeton last Friday and lost 6-3 in Kelowna on Saturday but won 4-3 in Osoyoos on Sunday afternoon and were in second place after last weekend. Patrick Martins with 22 goals and 17 assists leads Nelson and was in second place in KIJHL scoring with 39 points in 21 games when this was written. View the scoring leaders here

The Ghostriders play the Creston Thundercats Saturday for the third time this year, the first two games were in Creston where the Ghostriders won, 4-3 on September 30th and 4-2 last Saturday. Both games have featured lots of penalties and the teams have developed quite a rivalry over the years.

Creston played two games last weekend winning 5-3 at home against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks and losing 4-2 against Fernie. The Cats are in third place in the standings ahead of Golden but the Rockets have games in hand.
The Ghostriders strengthened their hold on first place with two wins last weekend. They won 5-2 at home at home against Golden then in Creston they battled their way to a 4-2 Saturday night win. On Friday Stefan Seel scored his first goal as a Rider against Golden. Josh McSkimming with 2, Connor McLaughlin and Austin Evans scored the other goals and Chris Solecki had the win in net.View the KIJHL standings here

On Saturday in Creston Dylan Robertson scored his first Rider goal and Alex Pronchuk, Marty Wicks and RT Rice with his first rounded out the scoring. 17 year old Scott Legault had the win in net.

Injuries. Andrew White and Derek Georgopoulos are both day to day and could be ready for the weekend and Alex Milhouse is back after serving a suspension for stepping on a player in Revelstoke.

A Ghostrider press release is below on Brendan Burge who should be in the lineup on the weekend.

The Fernie Ghostriders are excited to announce that we have acquired the CHA playing rights of Brendan Burge, 1992, from the Revelstoke Grizzlies for future considerations. Brendan is a very gifted offensive talent that has the ability to both set up goals and score. From Salmon Arm, Burge has played for the Grizzlies the past 3 seasons and was leading the team in scoring with 8 goals, 14 assists in just 14 games. Brendan will wear #22 for your Ghostriders. Brendan is 5'11 and 165 Pounds and is a right handed center.

Riders get a star from Revelstoke- Press release below

2011-11-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Fernie Ghostriders are excited to announce that we have acquired the CHA playing rights of Brendan Burge, 1992, from the Revelstoke Grizzlies for future considerations. Brendan is a very gifted offensive talent that has the ability to both set up goals and score. From Salmon Arm, Burge has played for the Grizzlies the past 3 seasons and was leading the team in scoring with 8 goals, 14 assists in just 14 games. Brendan will wear #22 for your Ghostriders and we are trying to get him in the line-up for Thursday nights game vs. the Nelson Leafs. Brendan is 5'11 and 165 Pounds and is a right handed center. Welcome to Fernie Brendan.

2010-2011 statistics

#	PLAYER NAME	BY	P	GP	G	A	PTS	P/G	PP	SH	GW	PIM
20	Brendan Burge	'92	F	33	18	29	47	1.4	2	1	1	51

2011-11-05T05:50:00.000-06:00

Josh McSkimming (photo) scores a pair of goals and Stefen Seel gets his first as a Ghostrider in Fernie's 5-2 win at home against Golden. Austin Evans and Connor McLaughlin scored the other goals. Both Rocket goals were PP goals and they went 2-5 on the PP while Fernie was 0-0. McSkimming, Marty Wicks and Patric Webb were the three stars. 627 fans watched Fernie outshoot Golden 32-25 and Chris Solecki picked up his 9^th win on the season and RT Rice had his first PIM. Gamesheet

In other news Trevor Forward had the hat-trick and Scott Swiston had 4 pts as the Cats defeated one of the top teams Beaver Valley 5-3. Fernie is in Creston tonight. Game sheet here http://www.kijhl.ca/leagues/hockey_boxscores.cfm?clientID=2223&leagueID=5221&gameID=981992 Nelson lost 4-2 in Princeton and the stumbling lately Leafs travel to Fernie next Thursday.

Ghostriders play Golden in Fernie on Friday night.

2011-11-02T07:48:00.002-06:00

Friday's Game will see the return of Evan Burgess who has been guiding for the last couple of months.

The Ghostriders host the Golden Rockets Friday for the first time this season. Fernie played in Golden back on October 4^th and won 4-1. Last weekend the Rockets lost 5-3 at home to Sicamous Friday but won 4-2 at home vs Castlegar on Saturday and may be a better team than some people think. The Rockets sit in fourth place (STANDINGS HERE) two points behind Creston but have a game in hand and don’t play again until Thursday when they travel to Creston. Darren Andre, Keith Wake and Lane Erikson are their top scorers and 16 year old Jarrod Schamerhorn and Cole Henderson share the duties in net. Full Golden stats here Full Ghostriders stats here

The Ghostriders won 4-3 in overtime last Friday against Kimberley. Alex Pronchuk scored 2 while Brendon Mangone and Marty Wicks with the game winner in OT scored the other goals. Chris Solecki got his eighth win of the season Friday and after the weekend was in second place in KIJHL goaltending. The Ghostriders went into Revelstoke last Saturday but lost 3-2. Rito Stiz (photo to the left )scored his first Rider goal in that game and Ty Morton scored on the PP. On Sunday in Sicamous the Ghostriders got 1 point in a 4-3 OT loss to the Eagles. Alex Pronchuk, Easton Bodeux and Marty Wicks scored the goals. The Ghostriders travel to CrestonSaturday and are here next Thursday night Nov 10th to play Nelson and will host Creston on Saturday.

With 4 points in three games last week Connor McLaughlin is leading the team in scoring with 20 points. McLaughlin came to Fernie late last season in a trade with Nelson and the Scottsdale Arizona native has been an on ice leader since game one. Connor is the Boston Pizza Player of the Month and is Riders nominee for the KIJHL Player of the Month for October. The McDonald’s Practice Player of the week is Scott Legault, the Subway Goal of the Week was by Alex Pronchuk and the Tim Horton’s Player of the Week was Marty Wicks. Daniel Higgs has been traded to the PIJHL in Aldergrove for future considerations. Alex Milhouse will serve game two of his three game match penalty he got for stepping on a player in Revelstoke Friday. Andrew White is day to day with an injury. The Ghostriders thank Fernie Mountain Spirits for being the Game Sponsor.

Riders move Daniel Higgs to Aldergrove

2011-11-01T20:01:00.001-06:00

The Riders trading of Dan Higgs is a little disappointing for this writer as we thought he would do well in this division. Higgs has great hands and a chip on his shoulder but it didn't translate into many points and he has taken a few untimely penalties making him expendable. Below is the press release from Coach/GM Will Verner.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Daniel Higgs, 1992, to the Aldergrove Kodiaks for future considerations. We thank Daniel for his time in Fernie and wish him well with his new team.

Our old buddy Barry Wolff is now in Drumheller (with Zach Baba) Barry was with the Jr "A Ghostriders in 2001-04

2011-10-31T20:31:00.001-06:00

Dragons Press Release: Barry Wolff Hired as GM / Head Coach

2011 October 31st

The Drumheller Dragons wish to announce the appointment of Barry Wolff as Head Coach and General Manager.
"We're excited to welcome Barry to the Drumheller Dragons; he brings with him a wealth of experience and a record of proven success at the Junior A hockey level," said Dragons Vice-President Rod Knelsen.
Barry's coaching past consists of 16 years in the coaching ranks, with his most recent season serving as Assistant Coach with Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, and as Associate Head Coach and Assistant General Manager with the Langley Chiefs for the past five seasons. During his time with the Chiefs, Barry and his team won the Coastal Conference Pennant once and were Coastal Conference finalists once.
Before Langley, Barry spent one season as Associate Head Coach with the Surrey Eagles, League Champions of the Coastal Conference Pennant, and winners of the BCHL Fred Page Cup.
Some of Barry's coaching accomplishments include being a finalist for the 2003-2004 NAHL Coach of the Year award, winning the 2002 Gold Cup Bronze Medal, and winning the BCHL Coach of the Year award for the 1997-1998 season.
Barry also had a very successful career as a player which included playing in the Western Hockey League, and two years in the pro ranks including time spent with the Detroit Red Wings organization as a free agent where his career was cut short by injury. Barry also played in the Semi-Pro and College ranks.

Riders get 3 of a possible 6 points on the weekend.

2011-10-31T06:04:00.001-06:00

The Ghostriders got an important 4-3 OT win vs Kimberleylast Friday then lost 3-2 in Revelstoke and then went to Sicamous where theygot a point but lost in OT. After the weekend the boys were 2 points up on Kimberley in the standings but the Nitros have a game in hand. Next up is Golden here in Fernie this Friday. Click the links for all the info.

Kimberley in town on Friday night @ 7:30

2011-10-26T07:49:00.000-06:00

The Ghostriders play the Kimberley Dynamiters tonight for the third time this season. On September 23 the Ghostriders won in Kimberley by a 3-2 score then the next day here in Fernie the Nitro’s won by the same 3-2 score.

Kimberley played a home and home against Creston last weekend, they won their home game 5-4 in OT (Jared Marchi was in on all the goals 3G2A) but lost 3-2 in a penalty filled game in Creston. When this was written Kimberley was 4 points behind Fernie but they will play Castlegar in Kimberley in an unusual Thursday night game. Nitro Brennan Foreman will miss a few games because of a match penalty he picked up in a game in Creston. The Kimberley Bulletin reports that Forman got the Match for contact wiht an official.

The Ghostriders won 5-3 at home against Castlegar last Friday but lost 2-1 in Castlegar on Saturday. On Sunday they defeated Grand Forks by a 9-2 score. Derek Georgopoulos had a goal and 4 assists while defenseman Matt Carr a had a goal and 3 assists. Scott Legault -(PHOTO) was in net for the Riders in GF. Scott Legault is a 17 year old and comes to Fernie via a trade with the Grandview Steelers. Scott played for the Major Midget Champion North West Giants during the 2011-2012 season. The Giants represented the west in the Telus Cup (National Midget Championship) Scott who is 6'3" 170 pounds will wear #31 . Kylar Stern who was 19 was moved to the Penninsula Panthers for future considerations. You may remember Penninsula won the Cyclone Taylor Cup last year.

The Ghostriders travel to Revelstoke Saturday and play in Sicamous on Sunday before returning home next Friday for a game against Golden.

Ghostrider Injuries, Andrew White is out for a week maybe two and Josh McSkimming is listed as probable for the weekend. Brendon Mangone and Nick Tupper are both suspended forFriday's game because they had game misconducts in the last tem minutes of the Grand Forks debacle .

Hockey fans will be interested to know that the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL have rented Fernie ice on Wednesday November 2nd at 9:30 AM for a quick one hour practice.

Riders win 9-2 in Grand Forks

2011-10-24T07:19:00.001-06:00

Derek Georgopoulos had a goal and 4 assists and defenseman Matt Carr chipped in with a goal and three assists. There were an outrageous amount of penalties in this game. A game missconduct in the last ten minutes is good for a game so a few players will miss next Friday vs Kimberley. Lots'a PIM's. Scott Legault got the win in net. Click on the names for photos. Reto Stiz also played last weekend, he is another Invermere player who wanted out.
There were too many penalties to list and too many goals as well SEEFORYOURSELFCLICKHERE

Riders lost 2-1 in Castlegar

2011-10-23T07:31:00.003-06:00

After a high spirited battle on Friday the Ghostriders and Rebels toned it down a notch on Saturday and despite out shooting Castlegar 32-22 the Riders lost 2-1. Derek Georgopoulos from Easton Bodeux and Alex Milhouse scored the lone goal for the Riders and Chris Solecki took the loss in net. Connor Beauchamp got the win for the Rebels in net and Tyler Robinson scored both Rebel goals.

Creston did the Riders a favour on Saturday winning 3-2 at home vs Kimberley. The Nitro loss keeps them 2 points behind Fernie who have 20 pts in the standings. With the win Creston can invoke the “Faint Hope” clause in the KIJHL’s contract…. They have 13 points but have some Rockets 11 pts and 2 games in hand at their asses. Kimberley is in Fernie on Friday minus their coach who we hear is suspended for a host of infractions. The BV Nitehawks have a blog now it's on the right hand side of the blog list.

The Ghostriders, Fernie Ford and Fernie Overwaite team up and donate $1000 to the BC Children's Hospital. Overwaite's mark Lento shakes Bruno from Fernie Ford's hand as Rider President Phil Iddon and Rider Captain Ty Morton look on.now

Riders win 5-3 vs Castlegar

2011-10-22T08:00:00.004-06:00

The Ghostriders faced the Castlegar Rebels here in Fernie on Friday night and came away with a 5-3 win. The Riders were pretty good in the first period and had an edge in play and a 2-0 lead. Ty Morton from Andrew White and Alex Milhouse scored on the PP and Derek Georgopoulos caught Connor Beauchamp way out of his net after he missed clearing the puck from the right corner and scored shorthanded.

For the first ten minutes of the second period it was all Castlegar and they scored two but could have ran away with the game except for the heroics of Chris Solecki in net. The Rebel goal scorers were Peter Mingus from Braydon Horcoff and Diego Bartlett and Connor Bowen from Peter Mingus and Tyler Robinson. After the first 10 minutes the Ghostriders settled down and scored a pair of goals Brendon Mangone from Matt Carr and Alex Milhouse and Marty Wicks scored from the point from Daniel Higgs and Zach Traverse PP.

In the third Connor McLaughlin from Austin Evans and Matt Carr made it 5-2 but with 7 minutes left Peter Mingus scored a beauty from the RH side off the bar and in, could have been the goal of the night.

The Rebels took way too many penalties and it hurt them. Fernie went 2-10 on the PP while the Rebels were 0-5. Losing Stuart Walton for Misconducts in the second was a big loss for the Rebels.

A couple of very entertaining fights in the third, Easton Bodeux and Rebel Diego Bartlett and Brendon Mangone and Braydon Horcoff were on the card. No wrestling with these guys all boxing. No clear winner in the first bout but Mangone won his. The Stars were Mangone, Mingus, and Austin Evans . The Riders travel to Castlegar for part 11 tonight. The Rebel fans could be in for a dandy tonight.
See all the penalties HERE

Lots'a players with 3 and 4 points in Golden's 9-1 win in Chase Gamesheet
Jared Marci has 5 points in the Nitros penalty filled (even a match) 5-4 home win Vs Creston Scoresheet here
The Rockies get a 7-4 win in Grand Forks and win the KIJHL 's version of Trivial Pursuit and won a game before GF and Chase Gamesheet

Press Release from the Ghostriders

2011-10-20T17:55:00.000-06:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of goaltender Kylar Stern, (photo) 1992 to the Penninsula Panthers for future considerations. The Ghostriders wish Kylar success with his new team and thank him for his time in Fernie.

The Fernie Ghostriders have acquired the CHA playing rights of goaltender Scott Legault, 1994, from the Grandview Steelers. Scott played for the Major Midget Champion North West Giants during the 2011-2012 season. The Giants represented the west in the Telus Cup (National Midget Championship) Scott who is 6'3" 170 pounds will wear #31 . Welcome to Fernie.

Reto Stiz who was acquired earlier in the week from the Columbia Valley Rockies will make his Ghostrider debut Friday night vs. the Castlegar Rebels. Reto will wear #2 and start on a line with Brendon Mangone and Derek Georgopolous.

Scott Morisseau is expected to return to the Castlegar Rebels line-up in time for Friday's game. Scott was put on a Hockey Canada Card on October 20 and the assumption can be made that he will make his Rebel debut against his former team Friday night at the Memorial Arena in Fernie.

Riders vs Castlegar

2011-10-18T17:44:00.002-06:00

There will be a radio broadcast for Saturday and Sunday's Games CLICK HERE

The Ghostriders play the Castlegar Rebels Friday Oct 21 then travel to Castlegar Saturday for game two of this home and home series. On Sunday the Riders go to Grand Forks, it will be their third game in a row. This is your only chance to see Castlegar in the regular season.

The Castlegar Rebels played two games last weekend; they won 5-3 in Creston and lost 7-4 to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks. Castlegar has a 7-3-0-1 record and sit in third place in the always tough (Nelson, Castlegar, Beaver Valley Spokane) Neil Murdoch Division. The Rebels are 6 points out of first but have 3 games in hand. Anthony Delong and Stuart Walton are their top scorers. Former Ghostrider Scott Morisseau is in now in his hometown of Castlegar but had off season shoulder surgery and has not played yet this season. No word on if he'll play in Fernie. -Photo a younger Scott Morisseau

Photo Alex Milhouse- he's always in the scoring

The Ghostriders played two games last weekend losing 6-4 at home to Kamloops then rebounding in Golden with a 4-1 win. The Rider goal scorers in the Kamloops game were Easton Bodeux and Ty Morton with a nice point shot and Alex Milhouse and Austin Evans who both scored hi-light reel goals. There were 565 fans at the Kamloops game, the Ghostriders organization thanks you for making us the team with the best attendance in the league. In Golden the Ghostriders won all aspects of the game. They outshot the Rockets 41-25 went 2 for two on the PP, killed all 3 Golden PPs and won 4-1. The goal scorers were Connor McLaughlin from Traverse and Milhouse—Alex Milhouse fron Dan Higgs and Austin Evans, Austin Evans from Marty Wicks and Kylar Stern and Alex Milhouse unassisted. Kylar Stern got the win in net.

The Ghostriders raised $200 when they ran in the Terry Fox run, Josh McSkimming (Photo) was the first Ghostrider to finish the race.

The McDonald’s Practice Player of the Week is Ty Morton, The Subway Goal of the Week was scored by Alex Milhouse and the Tim Horton’s Player of the Week is Austin Evans.-- Photo

Ghostriders trade press release

2011-10-18T07:26:00.000-06:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have acquired the CHA playing rights of Reto Stiz, 1993 from the Columbia Valley Rockies for future considerations. Reto who is 5'8 150 pounds, shoots right and he has 4 goals in 8 games this season. Welcome to Fernie.

SEASON	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	P/G	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	PIM
2011/12	Columbia Valley Rockies	8	4	0	4	0.5	0	2	0	0	0	0
2010/11	Columbia Valley Rockies	34	6	3	9	0.3	0	0	0	0	0	2
2009-10	Columbia Valley Rockies	5	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
CAREER TOTALS		47	10	3	13	0.3	0	2	0	0	0	2

Fernie Free Press story from Oct. 13- more KIJHL marketing and some other things

2011-10-16T10:05:00.002-06:00

Photo present Ghostrider President Phil Iddon
At the home opener on September 24 Don Siska dropped the ceremonial puck to commemorate the Ghostriders 20th season. Siska was the Vice President of the club during the inaugural 1991-92 season and was one of the founding fathers of the team. The late George Majic was President that year. Few remember the past Presidents but here we do. Their names appear in the order that they entered our lives and the number is for the years they governed. George Majic, (1) Don Siska (1) Bill Skrenka(1) Rob Watson (1) Lori Sinclair (4) John Miller(1), Phil Iddon (11).

The BCHL held their first ever 15 year old draft last week and Fernie’s Jeff Raymon was selected by the Trail Smoke Eaters. It was a good choice as Raymon will likely play at that level in the next few years. The draft only means that Raymon’s affiliate rights are held by Trail for this season. Jeff is with the Cranbrook Midget Ice this year.

Goaltender Chris Solecki won 7-1 in Invermere and 6-1 at home vs Chase and as of Saturday he was the top goalie in the KIJHL with a 6-1 record, a 1.33 GA and a 955 save percentage. Coach Verner watched him last year with the last place North Okanagan Knights and traded the always vague “future considerations” to get him.

With their 6-1 win against Chase, the Ghostriders won’t be the answer to the KIJHL’s ridiculous trivia question posed on the KIJHL site. The question was. “Which team will win a game first? Chase, Columbia Valley or Grand Forks?” More great “marketing” by the league, those three GMs must be P/O. Well at least the question wasn’t, “Who will be the biggest loser?” The Golden Rockets were almost a Trivial Pursuit answer Friday when it took O/T to get a 6-5 home win. The Rockies even outshot Golden 40-31 but couldn’t get the W. The Ghostriders outshot Invermere 61-19 last week. Riders fans won’t want to miss Friday when one of the premier teams in the league, the Kamloops Storm, comes to town. Fernie opened the season in Kamloops with a 2-1 OT win.

And finally, a couple of weeks ago we said Shawn Potyuk was the assistant coach but it was a lie, Shawn Potyok is the assistant coach as is former Rider Travis Harrad. Kayla Neufeld looks after their injuries.

Ghostriders lose 6-4 to the Storm

2011-10-15T07:26:00.002-06:00

The Ghostriders lost 6-4 to the Kamloops Storm on Friday night. The Riders opened the scoring in the first on the PP, Easton Bodeux from Ty Morton and Daniel Higgs scored the goal but Kamloops scored two quick goals for a 3-1 lead at the end of the first. Colten DeFrias from Shane Poulsen and Shane Poulsen unassisted scored the goals.

In the second a few of the Riders started playing like they were losing 8-1 and it was late in the third, they were trying to start fights etc.and eventually Zach Traverse who was angry after a Storm player skated right by him with the puck cross checked him in the head then tried to start a fight resulting in a game misconduct. Karan Toor from Tyler Jackson and Chase Edwards scored while the Riders were short by two then Chase Edwards from Blake Culbert scored to make it 4-1. Just seconds later Alex Milhouse from Easton Bodeux scored a nice goal while a Kamloops player was hanging on to him and the period ended 4-2.

In the third the Storm’s Brett Dallen from Tyler Jackson and Chase Edwards scored in the first minute on the PP then later on Austin Evans skated the length of the ice and scored the hi-light goal of the night from Matt Carr and Chris Solecki on the PP to make it 5-3. Kevin Leschuk scored in the empty net a few seconds later and it was too late, but, Ty Morton who had made several good plays and had a few chances scored on one of his hard accurate point shots to make it 6-4. Alex Milhouse had the assist.

Most of Kamloops’ top guys scored all the points for the Storm. Actually their top six scorers all had points. A couple of the Ghostriders top guys had points but it wasn’t enough. The first place in their division Storm have a few more high end older players than the Riders and they are good and can pass shoot and win face-offs with ease. They were more disciplined than the Riders in this game and with their core group are just a few players away from a championship level team, and were still in October.

The Riders needed the aforementioned Zach Traverse for the whole game and the linesmen did a brutal job breaking up Karan Toor and Brendon Mangone in the first. Toor went after Mangone but Mangone wanted no part of it and wouldn’t have taken any penalties at all if the linesmen would have stopped Toor from trying to pull Mangone’s face off in a timely manner instead of letting it go for a minute. Mangone was eventually kicked out of the game for kicking at Toor. The Ghostriders hit a few posts and for the most part were in the game.

565 fans at the game Austin Evans was the first star Lyndon Stanwood the second and Chris Solecki the third.
The Ghostriders travel to Golden tonight and there is no radio for the game. I'll update on twitter as I hear the scores.

Riders make a trade and will host Kamloops tonight It's "Hockey Friday"

2011-10-14T07:09:00.004-06:00

Ghostrider Press Release "The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Connor MCluckie, 1993, to the Golden Rockets for future considerations. We wish Connor well with his new team".

The Ghostriders play the Kamloops Storm Friday night, this is the only time they will play here in the regular season. The Ghostriders opened their season on the road in Kamloops and skated away with a 2-1 OT win. The shots were 39- 36 for the Riders and two of the game stars were Rider goalie Chris Solecki and Storm goalie Lyndon Stanwood. Stanwood was an all-star last season and is their number one guy and as of last weekend Solecki had the best record in the KIJHL with a 6-1 record a 1.33 GA and a 955 save %.. Expect some great goaltending Friday.

Kamloops last games were in Revelstoke last Saturday where they lost 5-4 in OT and on Sunday the won 5-2 at home against Sicamous. Kamloops sits at 7-1 with 2 OT losses. The Ghostriders are 8-1
Photo Jeff Raymon was "Drafted" by the Trail Smoke Eaters in their Affiliate draft last week.

Ghostriders play Kamloops Friday night 7:30

2011-10-11T05:51:00.001-06:00

Photo-- Connor McLaughlin

Kamloops last games were in Revelstoke last Saturday where they lost 5-4 in OT and on Sunday the won 5-2 at home against Sicamous. Kamloops sits at 7-1 with 2 OT losses. The Ghostriders are 8-1.

The Ghostriders played one game last weekend against Chase here in Fernie. The Ghostriders won that game 6-1 and on October 4^th they defeated Columbia Valley 7-1 the shots were 61-19, the Rockies continue to have problems.

Riders win 6-1

2011-10-08T06:16:00.001-06:00

The Ghostriders defeated the Chase heat by a 6-1 score on Friday night here in Fernie. The Riders led 3-1 after one and 6-1 at the end of the second. The shots were 37-15 and the game was never in question. Alex Milhouse scored a pair, one was a beauty stick handling around goaltender Jordan Vallance. Marty Wicks scored 2, one from the center line. Brendon Mangone and Andrew White chipped in singles. Chris Solecki got the win in net and is now 6-1 with a 1.13 GAA and a 955 save %. Tops in the KIJHL. PHOTO Dylan Robertson was named as the first star.

In other games Friday the Golden Rockets needed OT to defeat Invermere 6-5… Darren Andre from Keith Wake and Bryden Marsh scored the OT winner keeping the Rockies winless, but not pointless. Grand Forks wasn’t so lucky losing 10-0 at home to Osoyoos Dylan Burton had 4 points in that disaster.

Meanwhile both Nelson and BV maybe thought they had easy ones on Friday. Nick Perez was the first star with 2 goals and Dallas Calvin had 3 points in BV’s 5-4 home win against Creston. The shots were even at 35. Tyler Akeroyd had 3 points for Creston. Brett Norman was the first star as Nelson wins 4-3 at home vs Kimberley, all the Nitro goals were PPs. Spokane won 4-3 in Castlegar with Zak Kroll scoring the OT winner. Lots’a PPs in that one. Pentiction beat Sicamous 4-2 at home.

KIJHL "Marketing" From The Fernie Free Press "Off the Glass" Column

2011-10-07T06:00:00.001-06:00

What’s in a name?

You may have noticed that Kimberley and Spokane (and they aren’t the only teams) didn’t have their names on their road uniforms. Believe it or not some KIJHL teams are so cheap they don’t even put their names on their home jerseys either. What a great way to promote your players and make them feel important. Wake up KIJHL 1950’s marketing department (yeah they actually have one) and make the teams put name bars on their jerseys. If it’s money and a couple of hundred is make or break it for your team, then you’re in the wrong league, go back to midget or sell to 100 Mile House.

As long as were on the K’s A about their lack interest in promoting their players, let’s talk about the Player of the Month Award. Every month last year at least one team, but sometimes it was four or five teams, didn’t even bother to nominate a player for the award. At the very least they could have nominated a number, you know, just to make sure we never find out what their names are. How hard is it to send an email to the league (and we know they remind you) saying who on your team has played well. Even if your guy doesn’t win the POM, he, his family, the fans etc will be happy to know he was nominated.

Transactions. The KIJHL has a “Transactions” page on their web site but the fans (who are fascinated by this information) are lucky if even half of the trades are mentioned. Some GM’s post their trades but the rest of them think they’re giving out the names of spies or something. Little wonder some teams have games with under a 100 fans watching their nameless players. These are just a few little things along with a player profile photo from an everyday camera that would make the league look professional, make the players feel important, and keep the fans interested. And we’re not even ragging on you about your cheapskate unbalanced schedule, but we should. The GM’s forget that fans “pay the freight” and are actually interested in who is on the ice, traded or suspended. Some teams, like Fernie, do these things for the players and fans but some GM’s have conveniently forgotten all the BS they were spouting when they were recruiting.

Jeff Raymond Drafted by Trail in the first ever 15 year old draft

2011-10-06T06:02:00.002-06:00

Read Trail HERE Full draft HERE

Riders get a 7-1 win on the Rock

2011-10-05T05:45:00.004-06:00

Photo Andrew White- 3 assists Tuesday.
The Ghostriders went into Invermere on Tuesday night for a leisurely skate and usual 7-1 win over the undermanned Rockies. The shots were a ridiculous 61-19 for the Ghostriders. Ty Morton, and Andrew White had 3 points each while Brendon Mangone chipped in with 2 goals. The other scorers were Zach Traverse Austin Evans, Derek Georgopoulos and Connor McLaughlin. Chris Solecki got the win in net. Very few penalties in this game and 200 watched. Ty Morton and Connor McLaughlin are now tied with 10 points each for the Riders scoring lead. With the win the Ghostriders will not be part of the answer to the KIJHL’s trivia question on their site. Who will be the first team to win a game, Invermere, Chase or Grand Forks. View the Game Sheet Here
Also read this Nelson story with a player yelling, swearing and shoving an official HERE

In the only other game it was Craig Martin with the hat trick to lead BV who were down 3-0 to a 5-4 win in Nelson GAME SHEET HERE

A correction to my Free Press Story

2011-10-02T17:51:00.000-06:00

Here it is with the correct spelling.
Along with Jeff Zmurchyk, the Riders’ assistant coach Shawn Potyok has also agreed to coach for another year with the Ghostriders. This will be Shawn’s eighth season with the club. The former Vernon Laker (they’re the Vipers now) won a Centennial Cup (It’s called the Royal Bank Cup now) back in 1991 and still has the shot to prove

Chris Solecki is the Riders nominee for the KIJHL Player of the Month

2011-10-02T10:18:00.001-06:00

Click the photo once or twice for a larger image. Chris Solecki has been nominated by the Ghostrider coaches as their KIJHL and Boston Pizza Player of the Month. Solecki was acquired last summer from the North Okanagan Knights after Coach Verner saw him in a couple of games. He has made Verner look like a genius for picking him up. Below is the press release click HERE for Chris' full stats.

The Fernie Ghostriders are pleased to announce that Chris Solecki has been selected as the Boston Pizza player of the month. Chris is now in the running to win the KIJHL player of the month for the Eddie Mountain Conference. Chris had a 4-1 record with a 1.22 Goals against and a 95.9 save %. Congratulations Chris

Round the League on Saturday

2011-10-02T08:30:00.001-06:00

The Ghostriders defeated Spokane by a 3-1 score on Saturday here in Fernie. The Riders had territory and outshot Spokane 42-20 but Spokane kept the Riders really great scoring chances to a minimum. At the other end Chris Solecki made a few good saves and got his 4^th win on the season. The Ghostriders won the game but Spokane held in there and although they didn’t get many shots could have tied the game and put a scare into the Riders. Fernie goals scorers were Ty Morton from Andrew White on the PPin the first. Alex Pronchuk from Austin Evans in the second and Connor McLaughlin into the EN with 19 seconds left in the game.

Very little emotion and few penalties for the almost 497 fans to watch in this game.

In other games round’ the league….

Brendan Colter with 2-2 and 4 points led the Posse to an 11-1 home win over the Steam who had surprised Kelowna Friday with an 8-4 win. With 2G 3A Jared Marchi was the first star in Kimberleys 10-1 win vs Invermere. The Nitro’s continue to impress early in the season, when they lose it’s always been close. 375 in Nitro-land. Lots’a hate in Kamloops’ 7-6 win in Kelowna Chase Edwards had 4 goals and 5 pts. Check the sheet here even a head butt. Steven Pantazopoulos with 2 and 2 helps North Oak beat Chase 7-3. A shorthanded Osoyoos Coyotes squad gets all 3 stars Zachary Lindsay was the first with 3 G in their 4-3 win in Castlegar. Lotsa PIM inthat one. Brenden Burge is the first star in Revelstoke’s 4-2win in Golden. BV defeats Grand Forks 11-3 sheet here and Nelson wins 6-5 in Nelson vs Creston Brett Norman was the first star with 1G 2A.

Free Press Column from last week

2011-10-01T10:37:00.002-06:00

Click HERE

Riders win 4-3 in Creston

2011-10-01T06:28:00.003-06:00

The Ghostriders won 4-3 in Creston on Friday night. The difference in this game appears to be the two short handed goals the Riders scored. Alex Milhouse scored one of them in his first game of the season while Austin Evans scored the other SH G. Andrew White and Connor McLaughlin with the game winner scored the other goals. Kyler Stern (photo) got the win in net for the Riders. Creston had goals from Brock Ward Dane Birks PP and Jesse Collins PP.

Creston's Brock Ward Check from behind and CJ Caputo 5 min Kneeing were both given games. Lots'a cheap shots in this one. Fernie took 5 minors late in the third and Creston scored 2 PP but Stern still got the win.

In other games Friday Colin Minardi with 4 points led Summerland to an 8-4 home win over Kelowna. My spies tell me goaltending hurt Kelowna. Matti Jmaeff with 5 points helped the home town Nelson Leafs 11-1 run up the score on Grand Forks. Michael Pond scored a pair in Pentiction’s 5-2 win in Princeton. AARON BRANDOLI got the win in net for Sicamous in their 4- 2 road win in Armstrong. Colten DeFrias was the first star for Kamloops as they beat Chase 5-3 Scott Davidson was the first star with 3 points in BV’s 6-3 home win vs Osoyoos. And Connor Beauchamp with the 1-0 shutout helps Castlegar defeat Kimberley in Castlegar. Jeremy Mousseau was the second star in the Nitro net.

Spokane is here in Fernie this Saturday

2011-09-29T06:02:00.003-06:00

The Ghostriders won 3-2 on the Road in Kimberley last Friday then lost 3-2 at home to Kimberley last Saturday. The Riders lost at home but had enough good chances to at least tie the game in the third but couldn't finish. Dylan Robertson had his first junior fight against Kimberley's Mitchel Gallagher in the third. Lot'sa punches thrown no injuries, credit Robertson for trying his first fight against a player who needed someone to fight him. Dane Carlson suffered an arm injury that is likely season ending in that game and Derek Georgopoulos also left the game in the second. Could have used his speed when they were trying to tie the game in the third.

Spokane lost all three of their games last weekend, 7-2 at home against Beaver Valley and 4-2 to Nelson. In Nelson last Sunday they lost 7-5. After last weekend Spokane had a 1-5 record but these poor SOB's are stuck in the same division as Beaver Valley, Nelson and Castlegar. However they do get one easy game against Grand Forks once in a while. Sean Collins, Mitch Fowler and Nick farmer are Spokane’s top scorers’ with 5 points each. Fowler is scheduled to play Saturday after serving a suspension for a Gross Misconduct he picked up in the first week of play.

Ghostrider player report by Coach Will Verner “Our team has suffered a couple setbacks as Dane Carlson is out indefinitely and Derek Georgopolous, Daniel Higgs and Connor MCluckie are doubtful for this weekend. Alex Milhouse and Matthew Carr should be ready to return to the line-up on Friday night in Creston. Zach Traverse will make his season debut as he has returned to the Ghostriders for his 20 year old season. Zach will wear a Jersey familiar to the Traverse family as he will where the #17 Jersey worn previously by his good friend and Cousin Captain Scotty Traverse”.

The Coaches picked Connor McLaughlin as their Tim Horton’s Player of the Week, gave Derek Georgopolous the Subway Goal of the Week (Game winner in Kimberley) and Austin Evans as the McDonald’s practice Player of the Week.

Riders lose 3-2

2011-09-25T08:56:00.000-06:00

Rider Nitro sheet HERE 600 at the game.

Riders 3 Nitros 2

2011-09-24T07:26:00.000-06:00

The Ghostriders got a 3-2 win on the road in Kimberley on Friday night and will play those same Nitros here in Fernie tonight.

The Ghostriders held a pretty good territorial advantage for large parts of the game but it didn’t result in a ton of shots and by the end of the game the shots were even at 33 each. Connor McLaughlin scored the Riders first goal 6 minutes in but a few minutes later Mitchel Gallagher from Stishenko and Revie tied it up. Shots 12-9 Nitros
In the second it was all Fernie but only Josh McSkimming from Nick Tupper managed to score and that was on the PP. Shots 16-8 Fernie--Chris Solecki Photo

In the third Derek Georgopoulos scored the GW on a perfect shot from the left hand side, Ty Morton and McLaughlin had the assists. Colton Vannucci made it close with about 8 minutes left but the Riders and Chris Solecki held off the Nitros two power plays for the win.

Solecki was the first star, Connor McLaughlin the second and Colton Vannucci of the Nitros the third star.
Kimberley hit a couple of posts and at times took over the game but overall Fernie held territory. Both teams took the stupid delay of game penalties for shooting the puck out of play. The Riders actually scored on one of the DOG PP's. Announcers say there were 400 at the game. Photo McLaughlin

In other games around the league, Kamloops defeat Revelstoke 3-2 in OT… 200 in Revey for that one. Beaver Valley, who could be the class of the league won 7-2 in Spokane with 18 year old Ryan Edwards who is leading the league in scoring getting a G and an A. A few fights and misconducts in that game... Spokane is in Fernie next Saturday.

Anthony Delong had 5 points in the Rebel’s 9-2 thrashing of Grand Forks. The Creston Thundercats get on the win sheet with a 5-1 win at home over Golden. Brandon Formosa had a G and 2 A and was first star for the 300 Creston fans. Sam Nigg has 3 points in Osoyoos’ 6-2 win over Duner’s Posse, Darren Hogg was the first star in net for the Coyotes 415 fans. Sicamous keeps Chase at the bottom of the standings with a 3-1 win in Chase and North Okanagan defeats the Rockies 6-1 in Invermere. Kelowna wins 4-3 in Nelson with former Leaf and for a little while Rider, Braden Hikichi scoring 2 and a first star. Andrew Walton took the OT loss.

Zach Traverse is back in Fernie

2011-09-23T15:48:00.002-06:00

The Fernie Ghostriders announce the re-acquisition of 1991 born Defenseman Zach Traverse from the Saanich Braves for future considerations. Zach was a member of the Riders from 2008-2010 before he headed to Victoria to attend school. Zach has decided to continue his schooling in Fernie and he is excited to rejoin his home town Junior team. Traverse brings strong leadership to the defense group and will be relied heavily on both on and off the ice. Zach is very hard to play against, moves the puck well and will be another threat to score from the back. Welcome home.

2011-09-19T05:43:00.001-06:00

The Ghostriders ran the table last weekend winning three in a row on the road. On Sunday against the North Okanagan Knights the Riders won 5-2.

After watching the first two games from the bench Kyler Stern (photo) got the start against the Knights and got the win and a first star stopping 34 of 36 shots. Looks like we have a battle going on for the starting roll.

The KIJHL web site still hasn’t been updated and Brendon Mangone and Connor MCluckie are still not listed so the scoring may not be accurate but it appears that Josh McSkimming has scored his first goal and Austin Evans and Marty Wicks had 2 points each. Below is the link to the scoresheet, but it may not be correct.

http://www.kijhl.ca/leagues/hockey_boxscores.cfm?clientID=2223&leagueID=5221&gameID=981815

Josh McSkimming scored his first goal.

Solecki gets the 6-0 shut-out in Chase

2011-09-18T05:55:00.002-06:00

The Ghostriders win 6-0 over the expansion Chase Chiefs on Saturday night in Chase. The KIJHL web site is still not up to date and Brendon Mangone and Connor MCluckie’s names are still not on the site but I think they both had points again last night.

Chris Solecki had an easier night than in Kamloops on Friday and only had 20 shots but was perfect for the shutout. Team captain Ty Morton had 2 G and an assist and is of to a terrific start. Pat Webb, (photo) Derek Georgopoulos and Easton Bodeux scored the goals, at least thats what is says on the sheet. Connor McLaughlin had a goal and his second fight of the season and may miss today’s game in Armstrong. 437 on hand for the Heat’s opener.

Other scores of interest, Kimberley led by Mark Strachan with a goal and 7 assists pounded Creston 15-5. Other point getters were Foreman 6 Revie 5 and Marchi 4. Lots of misconducts etc in that one. Golden pounded Invermere 9-1 in the Valley. The Riders play North Oak today, they beat Revelstoke 6-3 last night Mateja Leko 4 pts and Bryce Koch 2G 1A led the way for Oak. Anthony DeLong with 2G 1A helped the Rebels defeat Nelson 6-3 in Nelson. Alex Ross gets the win for the Rebs while Pat Defoe gets the loss. All the scores http://www.kijhl.ca/leagues/latest_scores.cfm?clientID=2223&leagueID=5221
Fernie is in North Oakanagan today, be an interesting game for Solecki, he was there last season.

Riders win game one in Kamloops in the second O/T by a 2-1 score

2011-09-17T05:36:00.000-06:00

The Ghostriders Chris Solecki stops 36 shots and Connor MCluckie (Top photo) scores in double OT (3 on 3) and the Riders get their first win of the year in Kamloops. Lynden Stanwood stopped 39 shots and was named as the third star for the Storm. MCluckie was the first star and Solecki the second star.

Solecki had been just average in the Riders practices but seems to be able to put on a game face and came up big on the road. The scoresheet is not correct but I think Marty Wicks scored the first goal and Brendon Mangone had 2 assists. Brody Moen scored the lone Storm goal. It’s the start of the season so some of the names haven’t been added to the KIJHL site. The game sheet will be corrected when all the names have been added.

A couple of games we found interesting.. Beaver Valley wins 13-0 in Grand Forks Chris Derochie 3-3 has 6 points and Craig Martin 5 points. Andrew Walton gets the 3-0 shutout in Castlegar, he gets to rub it in the Rebels face and show the Riders how good he is. Pat Martins had a pair for the Leafs. Cory Hochhausen goes 3-1 for 4 points in North Oaks home ice win over Sicamous. Connor Winkinson is the first star stopping 34 of 37 in Kelowna's 6-3 win in Osoyoos. Josh McEwan had 1 assist and no fights. And Kimberley wins in Creston, Hubscher has a G and A in the 4-3 win. All the scores here http://www.kijhl.ca/leagues/latest_scores.cfm?clientID=2223&leagueID=5221

Morton and McLaughlin are the leaders

2011-09-16T16:03:00.000-06:00

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to announce the naming of Ty Morton as the Captain for the club for the 2011-2012 season. Ty came to us last year from the Oceanside Generals after playing 1 year for the BCHL's Nanaimo Clippers. Ty is a strong player on the ice and off and he has the respect of his teammates. Ty has played in 2 Provincial Championships at our level and is looking to add a Gold medal to his trophy case. We are excited for Ty's opportunity and his ability to lead our club.

The Fernie Ghostriders have named Connor McLaughlin as the Assistant Captain of the club this year. Connor was acquired last season for the push to win the Cyclone Taylor Cup and has returned for his final season of Junior hockey. Connor is a leader on and off the ice and he will push his teammates to be the best they can be.

The Leadership of our team is very important on our development. We are relying heavily on these two young men to make smart decisions and put the clubs interest first. At this time we will stick with Ty and Connor for the Core of our leadership and we will watch how our team develops through the first part of the season until we name a 2nd and 3rd assistant.

Riders make some trades trim roster

2011-09-16T15:48:00.000-06:00

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Josh Garneau, 1991, to the Kerry Park Islanders for future considerations. Josh was a solid contributor on and off the ice and we thank Josh for his time in Fernie and wish him well with his new team.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded the CHA playing rights of Josh McGladery, 1992, to the Saanich Braves of the KIJHL for future considerations. The Ghostriders wish Josh well with his new team.

The Fernie Ghostriders have traded Josh McEwan, 1991, to the Kelowna Chiefs for future considerations. Josh has spent the last 3 years in the BCHL with the Langley Chiefs, Trail Smoke Eaters and finally this past year in the AJHL with the Drumheller Dragons. Josh scored the winning goal in 2008 when we won the KIJHL championship. We wish Josh well with his new team and thank him for all he did when he played for the Ghostriders both on and off the ice.

Riders in Kamloops, Chase and Armstrong this weekend

2011-09-16T08:51:00.002-06:00

All the games will be local radio click the link "HERE The Drive 99.1" then go to the right side of the page and click 99.1

Happy Birthday Chris Moulton

2011-09-15T18:55:00.001-06:00

Spokane Chief's Head Scout and Fernie local Chris Moulton turns 40 today.

Fernie 9 Kimberley 5

2011-09-13T22:24:00.001-06:00

The rookie laden Ghostriders won a 9-5 battle on Tuesday night here in Fernie. Rider Josh McSkimming had three goals and after being shutout last year looks poised to make some noise this season.The other scorers were Connor Haney, Connor MCluckie (2), RT Rice, Dane Carlson and Matt MacArthur. Richard Hubscher (3) Mitch Gallagher and Jordan MCluckie scored for the Nitros.

The best player on the ice was Alex Pronchuk for the Riders. He did it all with at least 3 assists (stats not so good in ex play) PK,PP and five on five. He will be a delight to watch this year.

Last weeks Fernie Free Press "Off the Glass" Story

2011-09-13T07:22:00.001-06:00

By the time you read this the Ghostriders will have already finished their mini training camp and will be loading the buss for a couple of exhibition games with Beaver Valley and Kimberley. Their first home exhibition game is on Tuesday September 13 against the Kimberley Dynamiters. At the Riders conditioning camp two weeks ago there was one player who seemed to stick out a bit. He played with an edge even in the non-contact scrimmages and was one of the few players making tape to tape passes on both his forehand and backhand. The player was Daniel Higgs and he is a bit of a hostile witness (that’s lawyer talk) and should be a fan favourite here in Fernie. Higgs may even make the KIJHL’s ten most wanted list. Hope springs eternal.

As we write this there is quite a battle going on for the two 16 year old spots on the team and the coaches will also have some hard decisions to make on some pretty good 17 year olds as well. These are good problems for the coaching staff to have and to compound the situation the BCHL is still trimming their rosters and Coach Verner’s phone is ringing regularly now with guys looking for a good place to hang out this winter .

Missing a full season with an injury at the important, as far as hockey development goes, age of 17 was too much for Brendon Mangone and he didn’t make it in Trail with the Smoke Eaters. The betting here is that Mangone probably only needs a couple of months of ice and some games under his belt before some other Jr “A” team comes trolling along. Big strong 6’1” 190 pound skilled centers are in demand. Last season we saw Chase Golightly and the Hawryluk twins move up to Jr “A” during the season and Golightly ended up being a star at that level and was voted Prince George’s best defenseman.

And finally, the Ghostriders have quietly raised their ticket prices for adults from $9 to $10 and lowered their student and senior price by a dollar to $5 this year. It will be faster making change now and the lineups’ at the gate should speed up. Think of it as a sort of “harmonised” ticket price, just like the HST was …except… you don’t get to vote on it.

Terry Fox Run

2011-09-12T05:33:00.001-06:00