The Castlegar Rebels won their first regular season game against the Fernie Ghostriders on Friday.

The Rebels got off to an early lead in the first period with Morgan Scriber scoring the first goal.

The Ghostriders responded in the second period with a goal of their own, briefly tying up the game, but then the Rebels went onto score another two goals, the first scored by Castlegar’s own Darren Medeiros playing centre and the second scored by wingman Tayden Woods.

The Ghostriders scored once more early in the third period, but couldn’t manage a third goal against goalie Joe Mcleod to tie things up, and the Rebels won 3-2.

“I attribute the win to everybody just working hard tonight,” said coach Jesse Dorrans after the game. “With a younger squad our work ethic has to come out hard from the gate, and we did a great job, but I really gotta tip my hat to Joseph Mcleod. He made some big saves at the end of the game there, and it gave us the win.”

Mcleod is 17 years old and new to the team this year. He came from the Vernon Vipers camp and moved in with his billet family the day before the game.

“I thought we had a really good first period,” Mcleod said after the game. “I thought, you know, our legs were moving, we were getting pucks deep, and we were making it really tough on their d. We got that one goal that really sparked our bench.”

The Rebels also played the Kelowna Chiefs on Sunday, in what ended up being a tie game at 3-3.

Asked what he thought his team could work on for that game beforehand, Mcloed said, “You know I think it’s just crisper passes. You know when it was getting late in the period there, guys were kind of feeling nerves coming on, and I think if we kind of harness that energy and put it in the right places, I think we’ll really fit into the game as it progresses.”