P/O Schedule
Kimberley @ Fernie Fri. Feb. 29
Kimberley @ Fernie Sat. March 1
Fernie @ Kimberley Mon. March 3
Fernie @ Kimberley Tues. March 4
Kimberley @ Fernie Thurs. March 6- if needed
Fernie @ Kimberley Fri. March 7- if needed
Kimberley @ Fernie Sat. March 8-if needed
All games @ 7:30
Riders vs Nitros
The Ghostriders played Kimberley eight times this year and had a winning 5-3 record. Kimberley is a different team since the January deadline. They picked up Grand Forks top two players, Andrew Green and Jerris Gregory, Russell McLean from Nelson and Solomon Maccan. The Nitros beat Creston in four games, Solomon Maccan had 7 points, Andrew Green 6 and Mike Whitequills 5. Tanner Sheridan had 2 wins in net and Paul Basek went 1-1 in net. The Ghostriders last played Kimberley January 18 and won 3-2 in overtime.
The Ghostriders finished the regular season with an excellent 32-17-3 record and a first place finish in the Neil Murdoch East Division. This is a pretty good record considering the Riders lost 15 players from last year’s Championship team, including eight of their top ten scorers, both goalies, five defensemen and every player who won an award on the team.
Lots of credit to head Coach and General Manager Will Verner, who not only lost most of the best players from the year before but had the added disadvantage of not getting hired until the last week in August and then when he got to Fernie he found out that the rink was under construction and camp was 20 miles down the road in Sparwood. But Verner and his assistants Shawn Potyok and Craig Bell persevered and brought in several new players, and coached the boys to a winning record and a league best 145 goals against and a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
The Riders were lead in scoring by dynamic second year forward Dave McIvor who almost doubled his point totals from last year and ended up with 65 points. Rider Caption Scott Traverse now in his fourth year was next with 55 points and the most PIM with 228. Cody Reinbold had 38 points and was the highest scoring blueliner.
In net the Riders went through a couple of starting goalies before settling on former KIJHL Rookie of the Year (2004-05) Jason Greenwell. Jason went 15-10 with a 91.67 save % and a 2.54 goals against average and has been a first star in several games. Rookie goalie Jordan Sullivan didn’t play a lot but had a winning 6-2 record and shows signs that he could play a lot more next year.
The Ghostriders Jordan Reid who had 53 points had to retire in the last week of the season because of concussions. Reid missed 10 games and played at less than 100% in many others and if he was healthy all season he likely would have challenged for the top scorer in the league.
Odds and Ends
The Beaver Valley Nitehawks were the only team to sweep in the first round, they knocked out the Castlegar Rebels 3-0. The other winners were Kamloops 3 -1 over Summerland, and Sicamous 3-1 over Invermere. Beaver Valley will now play Nelson, Kamloops will play Princeton and Sicamous will play Revelstoke.
