The Ghostriders defeated the Golden Rockets by a 5-3 score Sunday March 1st to end their series with the Golden Rockets at 4 games to 1. The Rockets were worthy opponents and all the games were close down to the wire one goal (except for the last one) games that either team could have won.

Coach Will Verner had this to say about the series win. “That was a tough, tough playoff series. The Golden Rockets played physical, hard, in your face hockey 60 minutes, 5 straight games. They have more skill than many will give them credit for and all of their players play with courage and heart. We did have a good record against them but 11 out of the 12 games were decided by 1 goal and the final Sunday night was 3-2 going into the 3rd period. Winning is so important for our hockey club and to win in 5 games gives us a rest and time to recover and rejuvenate. We have just played 8 grueling games in 10 nights. “

The Ghostriders came up with a total team effort in the series with 14 players getting at least a point. It was also a great defensive effort too where the skaters and Jason Greenwell only allowed 11 goals against in five games. Karl Weberg and Jesse Niemi lead the forwards in scoring with 6 points each and Torin Brusven with 3 points was the top scoring D man. photo- Karl Weberg

ALSO… every Ghostrider player and Coach should know that the fans noticed and appreciated the discipline the players showed in this series, especially after some of the cheap shots they took without retaliation. We anxiously await the winner of Creston and Kimberley. But you know we really hate Kimberley.

Anyway… Here’s Coach Verner with some final thoughts on just what it took to win the series. Verner. “Experience, depth and will to win definitely helped our hockey club. Our goaltender was very consistent each night and made very timely saves at crucial parts of the series. Our defense led by Torin Brusven played strong and limited their top players each and every game. Up front we had great leadership from Scott and Dave. We had many hero’s in the series as you can go down our roster and look at the importance that each player brings to our line-up. This series definitely brought our team closer together and started to teach some of our players the sacrifice it takes to win. We will use our time off wisely and we look forward to our next series which should be great hockey for the fans to watch”. photo- Dave McIvor-

And finally. At the end of the final game of the Golden series when the game was out of reach Rocketman Zach Baba found a magic lamp and rubbed it then had one of his three wishes granted when he got to fight Lee Klapp. The Ghostriders reigning heavyweight champ promptly won a unanimous decision but huge credit to Baba for getting a couple in and having the guts to go against the older and larger Klapp. Especially after he was pounded with a thunderous hit from Tim Crawley earlier in the game. Baba has been the Rockets policeman for a couple of years now and chalked up 317 PIM’s this year. He probably would have had more minutes but had to share the PIM’s with Cody Sutherland earlier in the season before he left the team. For the record as a sixteen year old last season Baba racked up 466 PIM. -photo Lee Klapp-