The Ghostriders winning streak has been halted with a six to two loss at the hands of the Beaver Valley (BV) Nitehawks. Despite numerous good goal-scoring chances early on from the Ghostriders, the Nitehawks goaltender Tallon Kramer kept all but two pucks out of the net.
“Their goalie gave them a chance after the first period. We probably should have been up three to one and he made some awesome saves and then they settled down,” said Craig Mohr, Head Coach and General Manager of the Ghostriders. “The second period was the first time in a long time we got outplayed as a team. Credit to them, that was a really good hockey team and they always are,” said Mohr.
Despite some remounted attacks by the Fernie squad in the last period, the team could not make back the goal deficit.
“I thought we got back to our work ethic in the third but just couldn’t get a goal. We had a defencemen go down trying to make a play then they go down and score,” said Mohr. “We kept trying, I just thought the last 10 minutes of the second they outworked us and outplayed us. Credit to them. We got down four to one and couldn’t come back.”
It was a fast hockey game with the edge spectators would expect to see in a post-season game.
“It was just a hard hockey game. There wasn’t anything malicious. Just had a little bit of the playoff bite to it,” said Mohr.
While the Ghostriders did not gain any points against Beaver Valley they got two against their standing rivals, the Creston Valley Thunder Cats in a seven to four win at home on Thursday.
“The team has got a taste; they have seen Kamloops now, the first place team. They have seen BV who is in a battle with Castlegar for first place. We win a big game against Creston on Thursday. We are tied for second with them so we are hanging in there.”
Considering the injury list, the coach does not think Saturday’s loss against the Nitehawks to be something to worry about.
“I have no issues. We have four bodies sitting out in the stands and some key components are there. This club works really hard, this is just a blip on the radar,” said Mohr.
The coach hopes that the week off will allow the squad’s injury list to heal.
“They have been a really hard working, honest group all year. Get some bodies healed up over the break,” said Mohr. “[Ryan] Teslak is getting there, [Cole] Keebler is getting close, Mack [Sincennes] has the broken hand from the fight so he gets an extra week for that thing to heal. If you are going to break your hand mid-season he broke it in the best healing slot. Use the time, heal up and come on back.”
After the last stretch of games the Ghostriders definitely deserve their holiday break.
“They have earned their break. We talked to them after and we said that we know we got out worked. We will learn from that and move on. They have earned their Christmas break, enjoy it, enjoy your family and friends, eat your Christmas turkey and when we get back here on Dec. 27 it is Kimberley, Kimberley, Creston, Creston,” said Mohr.
“We are getting close to the finish and there is not a lot of time left so be ready for the experience of the Kimberley Kimberley Christmas Fiesta.”
The next Ghostriders home game is Dec. 27 against the Kimberley Dynamiters.