The Fernie Ghostriders kept fans on the edge of their seats on Saturday as a tightly-contested game sent the clock into double overtime.
It was right winger Brendan Nemes who finally managed to sneak one past Golden Rockets goalie Ryan Baker to make the score 3-2 and secure his team’s first win in two weeks.
Both players were named home and away stars for their efforts.
“Nemes was really good tonight, I thought he had a really good weekend and he was rewarded on that last goal,” said an elated Ghostriders Head Coach Jeff Wagner on Saturday.
“David Lenzin was a guy who really stepped up his game and controlled the play offensively.
“But I thought for the most part, it wasn’t really one guy standing out. I thought it was a really good group effort tonight, which was good to see.”
There was no scoring during the first period with Golden putting the first point on the scoreboard in the second.
Soon after, Lenzin scored Fernie’s first goal with an assist from Sebastian Iannuzzi and Kyle Ford, then Golden countered with another goal.
Nikolas Sombrowski leveled the score with the help of Ford during the third period before Nemes sealed the win.
The Ghostriders went into overtime during both games over the weekend, narrowly losing to the Columbia Valley Rockies in Invermere on Friday (3-4) before beating the Rockets in Sparwood on Saturday.
Goalscorers on Friday were Sombrowski, Lenzin and Jordan Kromm, who was named away star.
Wagner felt his team deserved a win both nights but was let down by small errors in Invermere.
“I think it’s just minor details that we’ve talked about all year – making sure that we’re taking care of our assignments, having trust in one another to win our one-on-one battles and picking up our guys who may be away from the puck, and sometimes wide open for a scoring opportunity,” he said.
“Tonight I thought we did a lot better job at that and I thought we made it pretty tough on their goalie. He played a really good game but we did what we needed to do to get an extra one by him.”
The Ghostriders are looking forward to returning to their home rink once roof truss repairs at Fernie Memorial Arena are completed.
Wagner said it brings more structure to the team, which had to do laundry at home over the weekend because of access issues.
“It was a bit of a scramble but we got it done,” he said.
“It will be nice to be back in our rink for sure.”
The Ghostriders are scheduled to play the Kimberley Dynamiters at home on Saturday, December 1, with face off at 7:30 p.m.
They’re back at home again on December 7, this time against the Spokane Braves.
Visit Fernieghostriders.com.
