Not much to write about this week, the Ghostriders lost both games of a home and home with Kimberley, 4-1 in Fernie and 6-2 in Kimberley. With the wins the KD have 45 points and the Riders have 38… but still have four games in hand.
As was predicted by everyone, even the league office, both games were sellouts. Fernie’s announced attendance was 1140 and Kimberley had 1703, they have a bigger arena.
At about 6:25 PM Friday the Fernie game was completely sold out and the lineup to get in was still the length of the arena and around the back past the Rider dressing room… and it wasn’t a single file line either, my guess is about 400+ fans were turned away.
With all the infrastructure problems the COF has, there is little chance of seeing a bigger arena. So don’t even think about it… they wouldn’t do a good job of it anyway, you would never get as close to the ice as you are now.
The 50/50 prize was $ 2582.50, no word on who won the money but the D-man saying “Glass and Out” will mean something entirely different for the winner New Year’s Eve.
In Fernie, Kimberley had period leads of 2-1, 3-1 and with a penalty shot in the third 4-1. Liam Breakenridge from Riley Enns scored the lone Rider goal and Nick Kunyk was in net. Luke Davies scored two and goalie Josh Hager who Kimberley acquired from Quesnel a month ago was in net.
In Kimberley, down 4-0, the Riders scored two goals in the first three minutes of the third period, Ben Skarsen from Eric Martin and Taylor Haggerty scored on the power play, then Coden Fournier got a nice pass from Gaege Johnson for the Riders’ second goal. That got the boys back in the game… until literally seconds later when the aforementioned Luke Davies got a clear cut breakaway and scored his 19th of the season, effectively ending any real chance of a comeback.
Cooper Anderson was in net for the Riders and Marc Samyn was in net for the Dynamiters.
Unfortunately the Ghostriders don’t have another money home game this week, instead they play in Castlegar on Friday and no where on Saturday. On the 10th they play in Golden then ride the bus all night and play Creston at home in Fernie on Saturday January 11th.
Happy New Year to the Coaches, Players, Billets, Board Members, Referees, Broadcast Crew, Volunteers and Fans.
At 17-6-2-2 the Ghostriders had a good first half and could still get first place !
See you at the Rink
