The Fernie Ghostriders faced off against the Columbia Valley Rockies in a hard-fought game on Nov. 20 that ended with a loss of 7-2.
“I thought that we got out-worked in a lot of areas, but I thought despite the result of a 7-2 loss, it was probably a closer game than the score indicated,” said head coach, Jeff Wagner, who believed the scoreboard didn’t fully embody the team’s effort.
“We created things offensively, and their goalie definitely made some big saves – and on the flip side… I think if you talked to both (our) goalies, there were a couple goals that they would like to have back.”
Off to a slow start, the first period ended with a score of 2-0 for the Rockies, which translated into a score of 5-0 by the end of the second. Battling on, the Riders rallied together in the third, sinking two pucks to bring the final score to 7-2.
“You’re going to have nights like that, it just wasn’t our night,” said Wagner.
“At the end of the game, the feedback was, ‘Hey let’s just have a short memory and move on’…As a collective group we just weren’t our best so we learn from that.”
In light of the most recent COVID-19 regulations limiting non-essential travel within the province of British Columbia, the Riders along with all other KIJHL teams will be momentarily pressing pause on games until Dec . 8.
“Within that time we have five games including the game we missed on Saturday, so I’m assuming that if we’re allowed to start paying games again on Dec. 8, we’ll try to reschedule some games mid-week so we can fit all those missed games into our regular season,” said Wagner.
According to Wagner the team will continue practicing in the meantime, looking forward to their next scheduled game against Columbia Valley on Dec. 11.
“We have a young group, and with it comes an opportunity to polish the skills of each player, so we’re really focusing on splitting off into D groups and forward groups, attacking finer details of the game, then it’s just getting back into system work, making sure that we understand what we need to do to be successful and making sure that we’re being tough on each other during practice,” added Wagner.
READ MORE: Riders stomp Dynamiters at home opener
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