Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday’s Game vs Kimberley
Monday night the Ghostriders face the Kimberley Dynamiters in game three of their eight game regular season series. Game four is Tuesday night at 7:30 in Kimberley. The last time these teams played was December 12& 13, Kimberley won both games 3-2 and 3-1. As it stands now the last place Nitro’s have 36 points, the fourth place Rockies 39 and the third place Riders are just a point ahead of the Rockies with 41. With the standings the way they are you can be sure both teams will have lots of motivation to win both of these games. Kimberley’s top scorers are Leo Keefer and Andrew Green and both these players were with the Nitros last year.
During the holidays the Riders acquired Cory Lester from the Dynamiters for future considerations. Lester was in his third year with the Nitros before coming to Fernie. The 19 year old from Kelowna BC had 53 points in 2007, 29 points in 41 games last year and in 26 games this year he already has 32 points. Welcome to Fernie Cory !
After the fights during the Summerland game two weeks ago several players were suspended and the Riders will be without Joe DeLuca (2 Games) Lee Kalpp and Torin Brusven along with Coach William Verner for 1 game each. The KIJHL won’t admit it, and they refused to let Rider News write about it on their league web site, but The Riders and Sting were not the only teams holding auditions for Bad Santa 2 just before Christmas. A quick look at the score sheets from around the league shows that several teams were naughty and not nice before Christmas. The most PIM’s though was Invermere (in this corner) and Revelstoke Dec.13 where one of the Grizz writers accused the Rockies starting all the action and goading their fans including children. The best was former Rider Neil Rooney who apparently, as said in the article,” knocked the teeth out of Rockies’ Tyler Spaan’s mouth”. Lots of suspensions in that one including Rockie Coach Darren Naylor getting 4 games. Rider fans see both of these rock’em sock’em robots in a couple of days here in Fernie. Neil Rooney and the Grizzlies are here on the 2nd and the suspended Naylor’s Navy on the third.
The All-Star-Top Prospects Games are on January 17th in Chase where the Ghostriders will be represented by All Star forwards Scotty Traverse, Dave McIvor, Karl Weberg and goaltender Jason Greenwell. In the Top Prospects Game the Ghostriders two 16 year olds Evan Burgess and Jordan Hirano will skate for the Ghostriders.
