The tiniest arena I have been in was full to capacity, 1147 people showed up, that’s 25% the population of Fernie.The Fire Marshall wasn’t far off when he estimated that there was 1140 people there.
One of the security guards said that it was the smallest arena in the KIJHL because when the arena was designed they forgot to include the concession/entrance area and also the Zamboni area. I can’t even begin to explain how compact the arena was, and unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out. But in the penalty box, there was only room for one, maybe two players. The players bench was two players deep. It was just congested.
The Nitro’s fan section got booed early on in the game when they went wild when the team came on the ice. Even singing “O Canada” was difficult in the arena as the girl singing had to find the perfect spot where there wasn’t feedback, talk about increasing anxiety.
The play started fast and furious and the Ghostriders couldn’t keep up: Pagura’s slapshot knocked sticks out of hands, Campanella single-handedly skated through four defenders to get a chance on net, Becker stole the puck several times, Perpelitz undressed Ghostriders while in the defensive end and Odelein left the game injured. Everything was going great, we even got a powerplay! But that’s when Fernie scored, a shorty to take the lead and the capacity crowd erupted. Buckley eventually batted in a rebound to time the game before the end of the first.
In the second period, Fernie jumped ahead to a lead, scoring two goals in the first five minutes. Nitro’s cut the lead in half about a minute later. Butt what was ironic about this period was there were two obvious run ins at the goalies, however, the attacking team was never penalized, just the defending team. And while it may have been true the attacking player was taken down before ramming the goalie, I am sure the attacking player could have done more than just barrel into the goalie. Atleast it wasn’t a Yakupov incident. In this period, Logan-Hill had to spread his wings to fly like a phoenix, and covered post to post with his pads. Which for those wondering, his wing span would have to be about 72 inches or about 183 centimeters, to cover post to post. But with his wingspan, I noted a habit of his where he knocked the net of during Nitr’s rushes.
In the third, Burgess went all “Michal Plutnar” on Buckley, just without pushing the referee, and no penalty was called. I was standing beside someone who said that “Bond, James Bond, always wins and he will score” of course he was referring to Kurtis Bond of the Ghostriders, and of course moments later Bond scored. The fans then started chanting “Warm Up the Bus” with the Riders up 4-2, which the bus driver I was beside jokingly said it was too early to do that. But about 50 seconds later, the Nitro’s scored to be down 4-3. The rest of the period was about crowd control, which was unfortunate. Those of us standing by the Nitro’s entrance ended up being barricaded in, to prevent incidents. – which I should note, this doesn’t happen in Kimberley. As much as I kept hearing that Fernie fans don’t get upset while in Kimberley, it is noticeable that we don’t have to barricade the away team to prevent our fans from getting to them. So….. just pointing that out.
Late in the third is when Mousseau really shone though, as the Ghostriders tried to close out the game by taking a two goal lead, Mousseau was making unbelievable saves to keep his team in the game. It wasn’t just quantity saves, but quality saves. Therefore, Mouesseau gets the nod as the Nitro’s Player of the Game.
In most games, I get annoyed with the ref, but in this game, I was annoyed with the linesmen. They made terrible calls, waving off icings that no one touched. Then I learned that one of the linesmen used to play for the Ghostriders… can we say “conflict of interest”?
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