On Friday night, the Ghostriders hosted the Columbia Valley Rockies and lost 6-5 after the Rockies scored with zero seconds left on the clock.
The Ghostriders have been playing like a different team since the holidays and Craig Mohr, head coach of the Fernie Ghostriders wants to get the team back to it’s fundamental play style of hard work.
“We prided ourselves on working hard, lots of energy and all that sort of stuff but this group has not been bringing any of that lately,” said Mohr after the Fernie squad’s loss.
The team appeared to come out flat again and took a couple of big penalties early on in the game.
“We did make a come back and that is a tough pull against [Columbia Valley] but we came out flat again, we were undisciplined, and we had two five on threes [penalty kills] at the start of the first period,” said Mohr, “This team needs a wakeup call.”
Before the game, the Ghostriders were four points ahead of the Rockies but after the Rockies win, they were two points behind the third place Ghostriders.
“They were four points behind us [in the KIJHL standings] and now they are two. We could find ourselves in fourth place before we know it,” said Mohr. “For myself that is unacceptable, for this town it is unacceptable, and for these players it should be unacceptable. We have spurts of greatness, we kill a ton of penalties, we get a short-handed goal. We score to tie it up, but we don’t get a puck out of our zone and they score a goal."
The last goal came with mixed feelings, as it was scored with no time left on the clock. The end of period light went off before the scoring light. The goal-line referee who has final say determined the puck was in before the time ran out.
Despite the unknown with the last goal, the coach focused instead on what happened before the goal.
“[If] we get that puck out we don’t even have that issue, we have to be better - in this rink we have to be better. We need to use home ice as an advantage,” said Mohr. “Tomorrow [Jan. 9] we are going to Golden and there are going to be some pretty hearty one-on-one meetings on that bus trip up. We have to win tomorrow; there is no doubt about it. We have to scrap what we are doing and get a win, period.”
The Ghostriders did win their game against the Golden Rockets, with a final score of 3-2.
“It was a step in the right direction,” said Mohr on Monday afternoon. “It was nice to get back with a win, we may be a little harsh after a loss but we have the opportunity to string some wins together and hopefully we get that snowball rolling.”
The coach believes that the team showed the work ethic they have and it would have been a win with a bigger score if it were not for the Rockets’ goaltending.
“The Keebler line was dominant, they could have had more goals but the goalie made a lot of stops,” said Mohr.
The team head into this week’s games in third place in the Eddie Mountain division.
The Ghostriders host the Nelson Leafs on Friday, with the puck set to drop at 7:30 p.m and travel to Golden to play the Rockets again on Saturday.