Riders acquire Tyler Witzke and play two home games Jan 11-12

Friday's Game

Friday we have the Creston Valley Thunder Cats in town for the two teams 6th game of the regular season.The Riders lead the season’s series 3 games to 2. 

Creston only played one game last weekend and they lost 3-2 in overtime in Columbia Valley. Creston are in last place, 13 points behind Golden and probably won’t make the playoffs this season after a second place finish last year.

Creston’s Head Coach and General Manager is former Spokane Brave’s Assistant Coach Nick Redding .

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Saturday we have the Castlegar Rebels in town, this is the third and final time these two teams will play this season. The Ghostriders won the first two games 4-0 and 4-2.

The Rebels won 2-1 in Spokane last Friday but lost 12-2 Saturday at home to the Nelson Leafs. 

The Rebels Head Coach and General Manager is Carter Duffin.

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Ghostrider Notes

The Fernie Ghostriders have acquired 99 F Tyler Witzke from the Creston Valley Thunder Cats in exchange for 00 F Kory Zinck, an undisclosed forward and future considerations. Tyler has 17 goals and 12 assists and will be wearing his familliar  #26 with the Ghostriders this weekend.

The Riders tied Kimberley 2-2 here in Fernie last Friday in front of 1140 fans but lost 5-3 in Kimberley last Saturday.

Dylan Defosse with a goal and 2 assists was in on 3 of the 5 goals the Riders scored in the Kimberley home and home.

Johnny Elias made the game in Kimberley a 4-3 game before they scored into the empty net. Elias who hadn’t scored since October 6th has had  3 goals in his last four games. He was the Riders Player of the Week.

Riley Fonger was in net for both the Kimberley games. He has also written a few stories in the Fernie Free Press on what it’s like to be a Ghostrider goalie. Check them out.

Coach Jeff Wagner says he will give Justin Failla the start in one of the  two home games this weekend.

Gavin Lawrie was injured when he was cheap shotted by Kimberley’sHarrison Risdon, who has a history of that kind of thing. Greg Susinski was knocked out by an uncalled hit from behind, in the same game. Both players along with Nikolas Sombrowski David Lenzin and Josh Dalquist missed all or some of the games last weekend. Sombrowski, Lawrie andSusinski are possible for this weekend.

Defensemen Eric Welford is out for the season, he will have shoulder surgery in February. Eric is the third player to leave the team with a season ending injury. Shaun Pierce and Ethan Jang were the other two players.

The Ghostriders play the Columbia Valley Rockies this Tuesday January 15th. That game was rescheduled from November when the arena was down for roof repairs. It will be a battle for second place and home ice in the playoffs.