The Ghostriders hosted the Revelstoke Grizzlies at the Fernie Memorial Arena on Saturday for their second home game of the season, and they didn’t disappoint. The final score was 4-1 in favour of the Ghostriders.
The Ghostriders had good reason to be nervous going into Saturday night’s game – they lost a 3-2 lead in the last seven minutes of Friday’s game against Columbia Valley, losing 5-3 in the end. Added to that is the fact that both of their regular goalies, Jeff Orser and Brandon Butler, are currently injured. A temporary goalie from Trail, 17-year-old Brandon Youngson, was called up from an affiliate team to replace the injured goalies, and head coach Craig Mohr was thrilled with his performance.
“Tonight, I think you’ve got to love Brandon Youngson,” said Mohr after the game. “He came up from Trail and – unbelievable. It shouldn’t be a surprise because he had a great camp, played very well in the exhibition and the only reason he wasn’t here is because we have Butler and Orser or else he would have been on our team.”
With both regular goalies suffering from injuries, Youngson will stay with the Ghostriders and play next weekend’s games. Mohr said that he plans to look the lineup when he gets word from the goalies’ doctors and updates on their abilities to continue to play this season.
“We have to evaluate where we are with Butler and Orser and see if he have to scramble and maybe find a guy for short term – we’ve got to have two,” he said. The team still has Sawyer Ward in the line up, but according to league rules, Youngson can only play 10 games as an affiliate, forcing Mohr to consider other options.
The 4-1 win over the Grizzlies was welcomed after the loss to Columbia Valley in Invermere the night before.
“It’s kind of the first time all year that I got on them for their work ethic. I thought Columbia Valley out worked us, our hustled us and out competed us and won the game in the last seven minutes, where I thought we played pretty damn good before that,” said Mohr. “I’m very excited about tonight and I think it’s because we blew the lead last night and we came back tonight in the same situation – learn from the mistakes, and lets not have coach yelling at us again tonight. That’s just a good sign of a team that is maturing, and getting a little better. I was extremely happy.”
The team also debuted their new special edition jerseys, playing in pink and black. These jerseys will be worn by the team for the month of October and then auctioned off at the end of the month, with all the proceeds going to the Friends for Friends charity. The online auction will close on Oct. 31 and is available on the Ghostriders’ website, Fernieghostriders.com
