By George Hurlbut
The Ghostriders win four straight and will now go on to round two. The Golden Rockets continued their Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde act at home in Golden. In Fernie they lost 6-1 in game one then in game two played great and were tied 2-2 late in the third before surrendering two quick goals. In Golden it was no different, they lost 9-4 in game three then decided to take the Ghostriders to double overtime before losing 3-2 in game four.
Four of the five goals in game four were PP goals and the Riders third goal was the worst of all as the Rockets were victimised by the stupidest rule ever in the KIJHL. Rocket defenseman Brad Orr shot the puck out of play twice, once in the first OT period then again in double OT and it cost the Rockets when Stefen Seel scored the PP game winner at 3:28 of the second OT. It’s tragic when the stupid dog rule finishes your season. Roll over, play dead, and let’s get rid of that rule.
Both goalies, Rocket’s Jarred Schamerhorn 55 shots and Rider goalie Chris Solecki 43 were the stars of game four as was Alex Milhouse and Rocket Keith Wake. Milhouse and Brendan Burge scored the other Rider goals.
After the first round.
Connor McLaughlin leads the team with 10 points followed closely by Brendan Burge with 8 and Alex Milhouse and Ben Primeau with 7 each. In the 9-4 game three win Brendan Burge and Connor McLaughlin each had 2 goals and 3 assists while Ben Primeau had a goal and 3 assists.
The coaches’ picks
Connor McLaughlin was named as the Player of the series.
Stefen Seel scored the goal of the series in OT
Evan Burgess and Marty Wicks were the defensive players of the series
Coach GM Will Verner
Here’s what Coach Will Verner had to say about his team’s play against the Golden Rockets.
Verner “It feels good to know that we can win close games when it counts. Game 2 and 4 were real good hockey games and we were able to dig deep and find away to win both those tight games. Connor McLaughlin was really strong in all 4 games and was the best player in the series. Many other forwards had strong performances in different games. In Game 3 Easton Bodeux had his best game as a Ghostrider while in Game 4 we saw Carson Brown return to form. Alex Milhouse was a factor in every game as well and once Ben Primeau figured out his role he was unstoppable. On the back end Evan Burgess and Marty Wicks were outstanding. The pair shut down Golden’s top 4 forwards to a combined 7 points over the 4 games. Burgess was outstanding in game 3 and had a 10/10 player rating. The goaltending was strong as both Fraser Abdallah went 3-0 splitting game 3 and Chris Solecki was a star in game 3 and received the game puck in game 4. This was a team effort as all 22 guys played a big role in the 4-0 series win.
Congratulations Will Verner and Ty Morton
Before game one Eddie Mountain Vice President Milton Crawford presented Ghostriders Coach Will Verner the Eddie Mountain Coach of the Year Award and then he gave Rider Captain Ty Morton the Eddie Mountain Top Defenseman award. Morton scored a lot of points while Captaining the team and Verner coached the youngest ever Ghostriders team to a first place finish.
