Coming off a 1-0 shutout win in Invermere on Friday, the Ghostriders returned to Fernie to play the Castlegar Rebels, who are at the top of the Neil Murdoch division. Despite a slow first period the hometown squad rallied back to tie but lost in over-time with a final score of 4-3.
“We won in Invermere last night. Great game, Ryan Kennedy scored and [Jeff] Orser got the shutout,” said head coach, Craig Mohr. “[Tonight] we were down 3-1, halfway left in the game, to roar back and get a point. We can’t be too disappointed.”
The Ghostriders have not had a regulation loss in six games. Excluding overtime goals, the local team has not had more than three goals against each game over this stretch.
“The biggest difference with us now, not having a regulation loss in six games, is we have really worked at getting our goals against down,” said Mohr. “If you don’t count the overtime goals we have been three and under every game. And the guys have buckled down and with all the injuries we are going through.”
This may be due to what the Ghostriders have been practicing. The squad has been keeping their opponents as close to the boards as possible while defending, effectively stopping their competition from getting close to the goalie and forcing them to shoot from father distances than most prefer.
“That was our big thing, to try to keep everything on the outside. With our goaltending, they are going to make saves from the outside.”
Currently injured Ghostriders include Captain Cole Keebler, Alex Cheveldave, Aidan Wilson and Ryan Teslak. Unfortunately for the team, the leagues top scorer, Keebler, is in the four-man scratch list.
The coach had high praises for the workmanship and dedication for this year’s Ghostriders team, noting how more than one line has stepped up to put points on the board and keep pucks away from the net.
“The [Ryan] Kennedy, [Evan] Reid, [Tayler] Sincennes line has really come to form in the last two weeks. They have been our one line that has been together all year, they have probably been healthy all year. They are our checking line, and they check other teams top lines and one thing one you do that is a lot of top lines really don’t like to come back in their zone and play a lot of defense,” said Mohr, adding details about the goal the line scored in Saturday’s game, “It was a beautiful chip and chase. If I can give huge credit to anyone right now our goals against are way down and that line is starting to chip in for us. We are getting some secondary scoring.”
The team and coach were happy to see so many people from the community at the event. “It was good. With all the Christmas parties going on tonight I was wondering what we would have. Getting over 400 people was good,” said Mohr.
The team has home games up to Christmas with a double header next weekend - a Friday night face-off against the Spokane Braves and a Saturday game against the Golden Rockets. Game time for both games is 7:30 p.m. at the Fernie Memorial Arena.