The hockey community has once again shown its incredible heart.
Last weekend, tragedy struck the Spokane Jr Chiefs when the family of player Patrick Carollo was involved in a car accident on their way to a Fernie tournament. Patrick’s sister, Amelia, lost her life, while his mother required multiple surgeries. Despite the heartbreak, the Chiefs decided to play, honouring Patrick and his family.
When Spokane Braves assistant coach and former Fernie Ghostriders Jason Greenwell reached out for tickets, Ghostriders billet coordinator Katie Barnett didn’t just provide them; she rallied the team. The Ghostriders went above and beyond, welcoming the Jr. Chiefs onto the ice as the honourary seventh player. They held a moment of silence for Amelia.
“The Ghostriders were fantastic,” said Greenwell, who reached out to the Ghostriders prior to the tournament asking for tickets. “They gave those kids a chance to just be kids again, even for a moment. It was an incredible tribute.”
“Our billeting coordinator Katie Barnett did a tremendous job with the support of our board and organizing everything,” said Ghostriders head coach-general manager Chad Scharff. “I think it was important with the kids still coming to the game, we recognized their bravery, while not forgetting about the family going through tragedy. We’re all about community even though they’re from Spokane. They were in our community participating in a tournament and we felt it was important that we showed our respect in support to the young athletes that were supporting us in a game. The least we could do was have them come out as our honourary seventh players, show respect with the moment of silence and if we could, take their mind off it for three hours.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Carollo family through this difficult time: https://tinyurl.com/CorollaFamily
Now into this week’s KIJHL Notebook.
Eddie Mountain Division
 |
Key pieces Trey Stephenson, Nathan Scott and Josh Hager are returning to the Kimberley Dynamiters lineup soon, which head coach-general manager Derek Stuart is looking forward to.
Meanwhile, Luke Davies, who recently captained the KIJHL Prospects Team in the BCHC Prospects Game, had three points in their lone game last weekend. “Luke was creating scoring chances and was engaged all game,” said Stuart. “Being ready for the puck is something we harp on and he did a good job of that on Saturday.” |
 |
Playing a physical and defensive style brings the Columbia Valley Rockies success and they saw that last weekend against the Grand Forks Border Bruins.
“I think it shows our group that that’s what’s going to help us win games down the stretch,” said Rockies head coach-general manager Tayler Sincennes. “That’s kind of what we’re trying to shape our group around. There’s a ton of skill in the league this year and guys can score and play offensive games, but it’s trying to get them to hold it on the defensive side of the puck and make that the priority.” |
 |
First off, congrats to Lucas Desjarlais on playing his 100th career KIJHL game with the Ghostriders.
Head coach-general manager Chad Scharff sees his team starting to do little things better, but adds there is still room for improvement. Forward and captain Taylor Haggerty was named the Top Forward this week. “I think Taylor is our heartbeat,” said Scharff. “Taylor is not only a good player, he’s a good person and he comes to the rink every day with the right attitude and wants to be the best forward in the league. I think he’s demonstrating why he has the ability to do that, and why we believe he is the best forward in the league.” With 32 points in 17 games, which ranks Haggerty second overall in the KIJHL, the Sherwood Park, Alta., native’s 1.88 points-per-game tops the KIJHL. |
 |
The Creston Valley Thunder Cats bolstered its roster with the addition of Brody Ryerse and rookie Tye Matthews.
The Thunder Cats picked up Ryerse from the Williams Lake Mustangs to add “a little bit of grit, size and strength.” “He is someone that can bring some energy to our lineup,” said head coach-general manager Geordie Wudrick. Wudrick then signed Matthews, who had started the season in Sicamous. “Matthews has got some really good offensive tendencies, but he’s also a big guy (6-1, 180-pounds) and likes to play hard and gritty,” said Wudrick. “Adding him helps build for the future and part of our development plan that we want to have over the next couple years.” |
 |
The Golden Rockets are focusing on little things to create more offence. Head coach-general manager Jed Houseman said they can play any type of game, but they need to “find a way to be more dangerous in the blue paint.”
The Rockets have scored 44 goals in 20 games. Kanye Huang is their top goal-scorer with eight in 19 games. “I think it’s the times where we’re getting those scoring chances, we need to find a way to get it in the back of the net,” he said. |
| Neil Murdoch Division | |
 |
Nathan Dominici made his return to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Nov. 23, collecting an assist in their win over the Castlegar Rebels. Dominici played his first game in seven months after spending last season in the BCHL with his hometown Trail Smoke Eaters.
“He’s getting his feet wet again and was awesome,” said Nitehawks head coach-general manager Terry Jones. “He’s a great, physical force, who created some goals and space for linemates. He brings a lot of maturity, experience and leadership to our room.” Prior to his debut, Dominici played in 75 career regular season games and had 36 goals and 32 assists for 68 points. He also has 24 points in 29 career playoff games. Dominici played on a line with Ollie Clement and Brady Magarrell. |
 |
The Grand Forks Border Bruins are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, which is where they want to be, but they are still not happy with how they are playing. Head coach-general manager Dave Hnatiuk put his group through a hard week of practice as they prepared to play the Nitehawks on Friday.
“We have been focusing more defensively, seeing our goals against drop. However, maybe the focus on the defensive side has our offence kind of sitting back a bit, but again not a bad problem when we’re trying to correct some defensive play,” said Hnatiuk. |
 |
The Nelson Leafs had a good week of practice and identified issues that head coach-general manager Briar McNaney felt they had as a group.
“We’re moving forward with changes that we’re pretty excited to implement as a team to play a tweaked style that should help our guys,” said McNaney, adding that the changes will also impact off the ice and in the community. “We have a good culture in our dressing room and it’s just about taking it to the next level.” McNaney added they are getting back to what their lineup should be looking like as players return from injuries. “We have high expectations here that we want to meet so we’re going to continuously be communicating and trying to figure out what’s best for our group to not only make us a good team, but a championship team. We feel we have a group here that’s at that calibre.” |
 |
Generating more offence continues to be the focus for the Castlegar Rebels. Head coach Nick Headrick was pleased with how his team played against the Nitehawks last weekend, feeling they hung around.
“We had our chances to score some goals, but yeah, they’re just not not going in for us right now,” he said. “We’re trying to focus in practice on winning battles down low and then getting the puck inside the dots.” With goalie Haden Heide out with an injury indefinitely, the Rebels signed Zach Veninsky from the Sicamous Eagles. In six games, Veninsky won two games and has a 4.34 goals against average with an .864 save percentage. |
 |
Spokane Braves goalie Tyler Picha had a 55-save shutout against the Nelson Leafs. Assistant coach Jason Greenwell said they see a really good opportunity with him to be a leader and take the reigns.
“He was calm, collected and his rebound control was phenomenal. There weren’t very many second chances,” said Greenwell. “The team did a good job of buying into the defensive end.” Greenwell believes that Picha’s confidence is at an all-time high. Greenwell has also been watching video and communicating with Picha, who is asking lots of good questions. |
