The Ghostriders finished off their pre-season strong, with a 4-0 blowout in a home game against the Kimberley Dynamiters on Sept. 13.
Ghostriders had a slow start to the game, but they swooped in in the final period with three goals, a few power plays and a head shot.
Goalie Nick Kunyk kept tight control of the net and was able to block 26 shots from entering.
"We feel like [Friday] night was our most complete game of the pre-season," said coach Chad Scharff.
"We didn’t love our start as it took us some time to find our legs but I thought Nick was solid from the drop of the puck. Nick was really good early and that’s what we expect from him. Coming off a great season last year we are very confident he will continue to be a strong presence in the crease this season."
Scharff is a new coach who worked with the Airdrie's U18 Triple A team the previous season.
The Ghostriders are in good standing for the start of official hockey season with a three to one record from their pre-games. Scarff said he's focusing on building team relationships, as they prepare to play the Dynamiters again in their first regular season game on Sept. 27.
"I think there's a really good core group of players here," Scarff said. "They've done a really good job adapting to what we've brought in. [I'm] just trying to build that trust and relationships with the kids and make sure that we're all on the same page so when the season starts we hit the ground running. Overall, I've been really impressed with the first three games and how we've responded so far."
The team has a handful of new players this year, including goalie Drew Cadenhead; forwards Nathan Flanagan, Liam Breakenridge, Sawyer Samycia and Keegan Fellows; and defencemen Eric Jiang and Stephen Jones. Notably, Jiang played with Pacific Coast Hockey Academy last year and Flanagan with the Okotoks Oilers U18 Triple A team. Samycia is a local and Fellows played for Creston Thundercats last season.
They join a core group of 20-year-old players who transferred over from last year.
The pre-season opened with two back-to-back games against the Golden Rockets on Sept. 3 and 4, with the Ghostriders winning both games 5-4 in overtime, with Colby Driebergen and Coden Fournier scoring the final goals.
They lost 2-3 in their first game against the Dynamiters on Sept. 7, after opposing forwards Carter Hensch, Lukas Carlson and Danik Reeves made three successive goals in the final period.
Scharff said that his goal this season to push the team to reach their potential, so they can hopefully surpass their standing last year.
"They were four wins away from winning the championship [last season], so it's about doing something right, learning what worked for them and didn't work for them, and putting our own flavour on it. At the end of the day, we're trying to win four more hockey games this year," he said.
