The Ghostriders had a “death by diesel” weekend, travelling the farthest distances they will all season.
It started with a Friday night game against the Kamloops Storm, in which the Ghostriders earned a 2-1 victory. On Saturday night, the Ghostriders faced off against the 100 Mile House Wranglers, where they were beat 5-1. The road trip’s final game was against the Chase Heat on Sunday afternoon, where the Ghostriders won 6-4. Overall, Head Coach Craig Mohr said that the weekend was “fabulous.”
“100 Mile House was a hard loss. It ended up 5-1 but they got a couple late. 100 Mile House was a mean, rough hard game. It was just one of those games – they play pretty physical in their own rink and they play good in their own rink and these are games, they were playoff intensity, they were hard fought games. It was awesome. Very well earned wins,” said Mohr.
Mohr said that he was happy with the team’s performance, as everyone showed up to play hard, which is what’s needed with three-game weekends.
“I think that’s the key is when you have three day weekends, you got to have everyone playing well because you don’t really have the man power to be short,” he said. “You just play too much hockey, so everyone’s got to be playing. That was one of our big success is that we had everyone pulling, everyone played well.”
Mohr credited Cole Keebler, Jeff Orser and Alex Cheveldave as having exceptionally good games, but did mention the help of many players helped this weekend.
“Cole Keebler had a great weekend. Jeff Orser - he won the two games he played Friday and Sunday, played spectacular,” said Mohr. “Alex Cheveldave had a very good weekend too. He put some goals in for us, and played well.”
“We had a bunch of unsung heroes,” he continued. “Some of the guys, they don’t score a lot of points, but they were three mean hockey games. Some of the grinding kids played real well, they played real hard. I think for some of the young guys, they got a taste of what it’s like to play three real intense, hard fought games and they got a taste of what it’s like and what playoffs are going to be like. All in all in was a good weekend.”
The Ghostriders face a challenging weekend, as they meet division rivals, Kimberley Dynamiters, for the first time this season and play against Columbia Valley in their arena, in which they have yet to win this season.
“It’s a really big weekend, we are playing Kimberley at home for the first time and then we are back in Inveremere and we haven’t won in Inveremere yet this year,” said Mohr. “It’s going to be a good challenging weekend. It’s always fun when you can play your main rival. It is. It’s going to be awesome.”
The Ghostriders host the Kimberley Dyanmiters at the Fernie Memorial Arena on Friday with the game starting at 7:30 p.m.