By George Hurlbut
The Ghostriders won the first game here in Fernie by a 5-2 score then traveled to Kimberley on Wednesday where they won 8-7 and now lead the series 2-0. The winner of this series will play the winner of the Beaver Valley – Castlegar series. Beaver Valley currently leads the Rebels 2-0 . The winner of that series will have home ice advantage against either Fernie or Kimberley.
In the West Kootenay’s
The other two series’ are Princeton- Kelowna, where Princeton won the first two games despite being without 5 players and their coach Dale Hladun after their series win against Pentiction. There were several fights etc with 7 seconds left in the game that all started when a Pentiction played hit another player from behind. Pentiction coach Robert Dirk (the old Canuck) says they started it… cept it was his player who made the hit from behind when they were down 3 goals. The other series sees Kamloops and Sicamous tied up at 1 game apiece. Sicamous defeated Revelstoke in a game seven that never started until midnight in Revelstoke because they were held up on the highway by an avalanche. Revy coach Randy Quakenbush says “sometimes the best team doesn’t always win”… gotta love those hate to lose attitudes.
Game two
In Kimberley the Ghostriders and Nitros combined for 15 goals in a penalty filled game. The Nitros were ahead 1-0 at the end of the first but a penalty filled second period changed everything. When it was over the Riders had scored five goals. Three on the power play and one shorthanded.
In the third with the Riders up 8-5 and only 2:37 left in the game Dylan Robertson got 5 minutes for clipping and Kimberley scored two goals making it 8-7 and a little too close for comfort… but the Nitros ran out of time. All in all there were 11 special team’s goals.
Three Stars
Stefen Seel was a scratch in game one but scored three goals in game two and was the first star. Nitro Rylan Duley with 2 goals and 3 assists was the second star and Connor McLaughlin with 2 goals and an assist was the third star.
Injuries
Evan Burgess is out while RT Rice and Derek Georgopoulos who has been out for about 6 weeks and is now skating, are both listed as day to day. Dylan Robertson is suspended for Friday’s game due to a major penalty on Wednesday in Kimberley.
Points
Connor McLaughlin and Brendan Burge each have 15 points and are averaging 2.5 points a game while the apparently notorious Marty wicks leads the D men with 8 points in 6 games.
Nitro Rylan Duley had 5 points in the last game and Richard Hubscher and Senate Patten each had 4 points in the first two games and need to be watched, by the Riders and the fans as they can play the game.
