The Ghostriders had lost three games in a row to the Creston Thundercats dating back to December 3rd in Fernie when the Cats won 2-1. The Riders also lost 5-4 in OT in Creston on Dec. 11 and 2-1 last Thursday in Creston. On Friday the Ghostriders, who should have had a better fate in some of those games would break out of that slump.

The Cats were in Fernie last night and the Riders dominated everywhere except on the scoreboard . They outshot them 39-18, out chanced them by the same wide margin and held the puck all night long but could only beat the game’s first star Weston Joseph twice and only won the game 2-1. The goal scorers were Cale Wright from Luke Richardson ( Richardson’s first point as a Ghostrider) and Thomas Abenante with the GW unassisted. Creston’s goal was off the stick of CJ Caputo from Dylan Solberg . The Riders had several top quality scoring chances cross bars etc. but couldn’t finish and it took a somewhat lucky goal off a wierd bounce to win. Although if you try 39 times your gonna get one in so it’s not really luck. With his game winning goal Abenante is now on top of the KIJHL in scoring with 64 points, Morisseau is in second place. Nice job guys.

Credit coach Joe Martin for Creston’s success against the Riders. His team is not nearly as skilled or as fast as the Ghostriders but he has them doing everything else right. They go after Fernie’s better players, always finish their checks, don’t pass in front of their net and play as physical as possible  “and”  everyone gets back quickly making it hard to get too many real top quality scoring chances. Exactly the way they have to play against the faster Riders.
This was the first time this writer has seen TY Morton and Luke Richardson . In Morton it looks like Fernie has an All- Star , this guy is big, doesn’t panic with the puck, can get shots through the traffic and can make moves around players to get time. A great acquisition as far as I can see. Richardson hasn’t played for a couple of months.