By Ezra Black
Free Press Staff
On Jan. 26, Riders’ winger Keelan Saworski banged them in and a line led by Taylor Sincennes shut them down as the Ghostriders soundly defeated their division rivals in front of a raucous crowd at Fernie Memorial Arena.
Saworski had only scored twice all season but last week he doubled that number by scoring twice against the Kimberley Dynamiters. He netted the all-important game winning goal with three minutes left in the second period.
“I just got it over the glove,” he said.
Sincennes’ line played shutdown defence and made sure the Dynamiters didn’t score in the third. He then potted an unassisted empty-netter to make it 5-3 Ghostriders.
The win put them eight points back of Kimberley, their division rivals.
“That win was huge and we needed it more than they did,” said Sincennes, a power-forward who added that “I can put the puck in the net if I have to but I can shut them down if I need to.”
Ghostriders’ coach, Craig Mohr said he was happy with the win, which the Riders got in front of an enthusiastic Australia Day crowd.
“We put the flag up on the bench for them,” he said. “And that section was rocking and rolling all night.”
“We have to control our fate here and win hockey games,” added Mohr. “I thought we got away from our game midway through the second and they started getting momentum and we got away from keeping our game real simple. Chipping it off the wall and attacking their defencemen with real intense puck pressure creating turnovers.
“The fourth goal was huge,” he said. “They had a bunch of momentum, we get a great chip and we got a two-on-one and Saworski puts it bar down and that settles it. I thought we worked extremely hard.
Two nights later the Riders defeated the Nelson Leafs 5-3 at the Nelson Community Complex. Riders’ captain Alex Cheveldave scored the game winning goal on a power play late in the second. The Riders are still third in the Eddie Mountain Division standings with 49 points.
