The Ghostriders played two games vs Kimberley last weekend and won both games by 2-1 scores. All accounts say Kimberley’s goalies were great as the Riders out shot and out chanced the Nitros in both games. Even the Kimberley announcers were surprised at the territorial advantage the Ghostriders had. But it all boils down to the fact the Riders could only beat Tory Caldwell twice on Friday and Mike Smith two times on Saturday.

Here is Coach Will Verner on the weekend series with Kimberley.

Verner ”It was a good weekend for our hockey club with getting 4 points and extending our winning streak to 6 games. The wins came at a loss of one of our top scorers Matt MacDonald as he will be out anywhere from 7 – 10 weeks. We play Kimberley 5 more times with the next home meeting on December 28. It looks like the rivalry is once again renewed. We felt we carried the play but give Kimberley credit as they continued to pressure and had chances in both games to tie the score. We have played them 4 times now with two scores 2-1, one tie at 2-2 and one 3-2 victory. Our final two home matches against Kimberley will be January 2 and January 8 with all home games starting at 7:30pm.

Notebook

Well as Verner says it looks like the rivalry is heating up, much to the delight of the writers and fans. However, it was so hot  last week that the Ghostriders will be without their top two scorer’s this weekend.

Jesse Niemi was given a Gross for allegedly spraying water at the Nitros at the end of the Kimberley game last Saturday. ..That usually means three games… And the Riders will also be without Matt MacDonald -photo-
who was given a cheap shot by Nitro Trevor Grier in that same game.…On the broadcast our Fernie announcers (who are doing a great job by the way) said that MacDonald was targeted as a retaliation because Zach Fridella had previously rocked Nitro Ryan Georgeopoulas out of the game earlier…Kimberlay coach Kevin MacKay says the Georgeopoulas hit wasn’t an accident and said his player spent the night in the hospital with a concussion and possible broken jaw….Great to see the rivalry get hot again boys, but lets keep all the cheap stuff in Walmart…# 17 James Werner is arguably one of the most talented players on the Ghostrider roster but has been hot and cold all year and has had trouble fighting through the tight checking…But Werner’s hot now though he had a goal and an assist vs Spokane and scored both game winners vs Kimberley in the 2-1 home and away games last week….The Coaches picked Jason Greenwell who had a shutout and three wins in his last four games as their Tim Horton’s Player of the Week….Goaltender Jarvis Bender has been released by the Ghostriders and Coach verner is trying to find him a place to play.