The Ghostriders won both their games on the weekend. In Creston with a 43-17 shot advantage the game was a lot closer than it should have been. The Riders dominated play and had a large edge in territory then followed it up against Spokane where they not only had territory… they had the whole f’n Country. More on that game in a few minutes.
Game Notes
In Creston
Ben Skarsen from Haggerty and Martin scored his first goal since coming back from Bonnyville of the AJHL and it was the overtime game winner…he did alright against the Braves as well.
Riley Enns who has been very noticeable so far got his 3rd of the year and the speedy Gaege Johnson got his first of the season from emerging D man Stephen Jones… who had assists on both the aforementioned goals.
Fernie local Sawyer Samycia got his first point in a Rider uniform with an assist on AC Jack Lambert’s second of the year.
Drew Cadenhead got his first start in net and his first win in Creston. The T-Cats didn’t get a lot of shots but Cadenhead made the stops he had to in the third.
Former Rider Liam Monro scored all 3 Creston goals…where the hell was this guy last year ??? Oddly enough Creston didn’t have a single penalty and Fernie only had two…that would change in a few hours.
After stopping 39 of 43 Ghostriders shots Brendan Smith was named as Creston’s star and D man Stephan Jones, who was very noticeable was Fernie’s star. The easy picks would have been Ben Skarsen (GWG) and Creston’s Liam Monro (3G) .
The Creston broadcast was foggy, the announcer who is good and knows all the names and some history didn’t believe me, however, several people in our area reported the same problem. It looked like in the summer when the forest fires are raging and the smoke is everywhere…or Cheech and Chong were sitting in front of the camera.
Spokane 3 @ Fernie 10 Notes
Luke Rothfos scored his first goal then scored two more and had an assist on Ben Skarsen’s goal, Skarsen also had 3A’s. Lotsa hats on the ice after that, even a sombrero from the broadcast booth, that came from Dylan Defosse’s parents a while ago… they keep it there just for the hat tricks.
Taylor Haggerty, Coden Fournier, Braeden Jack, Eric Martin, Jack Lambert, and Colby Driebergen also had multiple point nights.
New D-man Dhillon Govind had three assists in his first game. Govind came over from Creston and also played a few games in Columbia Valley. Big tall with a long reach and looks good on the power play, that had been struggling, but got three on Saturday… What’s not to like.
Nick Kunyk was victimized by one of the strangest bounces I’ve seen in this building. Puck landed right in front of him then took a hard right and over his shoulder, but he got the win and had to make a few big saves to get it.
Malachai North Peigan scored a goal and at the insistence of a much smaller Spokane player agreed to fight him and won…just one assist woulda bin great
Several PIM in the Spokane game, but Fernie is still the lowest in the KI with 57 PIM. Lots of goals and a fight for the 646 fans, another…what’s not to like. Plus the boys are now at .700 up from .500 last weekend.
Round’ The League
Quesnel has brought on Logan Maxwell as their new Head Coach but say he’s an interim hire after removing 20 year KIJHL HC GM Dale Hladun who won a championship a few years ago with 100 and was in Fernie for a season.
Princeton .938 has the best record so far with 7 W and 1 SOL. We don’t get Princeton this year but will play there in February.
The Ghostriders play in Kimberley Friday. The Nitros’ beat Spokane 7-4 and Beaver Valley 5-2 and are in first place. Kamloops is going on a three game road trip and will play in Fernie next Saturday Oct 19th.
Ryan Kennedy from several years ago, a photo just too good not to use once in a while.
