This is your Flin Flon Bombers Week Recap Powered by Canadian Tire
This past week, the Bombers played 3 games, starting on Wednesday vs. the Melfort Mustangs in Melfort. Going into this game, the season series between the two was tied up 2-2, making this a very crucial game for both teams. The Bombers came out to a good start in the first period with an early goal from Noah Houle to put the Bombers up 1-0. In the second period, the Bombers struggled, only putting 3 shots on net to the Mustangs 12, but still neither team was able to score. For the third period, the Bombers kicked it back into gear and outshot the Mustangs 14-5 and found the back of the net 2 more times, from Alexi Sylvestre and Carter Anderson. The Bombers won the game 3-0 to take the series lead 3-2 over Melfort.
The Bombers got outshot by the Mustangs 33 to 29. Harmon Laser-Hume stopped all 33 shots. The Bombers went 0/3 on the power play and stopped Melfort all 3 time on the penalty kill.
On Friday, the Bombers were back at the Whitney for a huge weekend series against the defending SJHL Champions, Battlefords North Stars. The Bombers started off hot with a goal in the first minute of the game from Carter Anderson to put them up 1-0. The North Stars then answered back quickly to tie it 1-1. Flin Flon was able to maintain momentum though and found the back of the net again, this time from Justin Lies to go up 2-1 going into the intermission. In the second period, it was the Bombers power play and Carter Anderson that were able to find another goal and take the 3-1 lead. It seemed the Bombers were going to go into the third up 2, but in the final 5 minutes of the second, Battlefords found another goal to close the gap to 3-2 to end off the period. For the third period, both teams had good looks on the net but after 10 minutes the Bombers still led 3-2. Eventually, Battlefords was able to find the back of the net to tie the game up 3-3. But that wasn’t good enough, as the Bombers answered back with 2 goals, one from Alexi Sylvestre short-handed and one from Jacob Vockler. The Bombers took the 5-3 lead to the end of the game and were victorious.
The Bombers got outshot 41 to 40. Harmon Laser-Hume stopped 38/41 shots. The Bombers went 1/7 on the power play and stopped the North Stars all 9 times on the penalty kill.
Saturday night called for round 2 between the Bombers and the North Stars and this time it was Battlefords that got the ball rolling in the first. They came out with a goal in the first 35 seconds of the game, followed by another shortly after to give them the early 2-0 lead. Nearly the end of the first though, Justin Lies was able to score one for the Bombers on the power play to make it a 2-1 game for Battlefords going into the second. There was no shortage of action in the second period and yet again the North Stars got the ball rolling goal with an early goal in second period to take a 3-1 lead. The Bombers fought back, and eventually were able to find one of their own, coming from Jacob Vockler on the power play to make it a 3-2 game. Then it was Noah Houle who got the next one for the Bombers on the power play, but the goal was called off. At the next stoppage, even though Houle’s shot was initially called no goal, the referees discussed with the goal judge, and in a very rare event in the SJHL, the initial no goal call was overturned and the Bombers tied it up 3-3. The Bombers finally had some momentum in their favour but right away Battlefords took it away with another goal to take the 4-3 lead. The rest of the period was an absolute shootout with the Bombers scoring 2 more, both coming from Alexi Sylvestre, and the North Stars scoring 1 to make it 5-5 going into the third period. The North Stars kept on firing in the third period and ended grabbing 2 more in the first 10 minutes of the period to go up 7-5. The Bombers did answer back with a goal from Justin Lies to close the gap to 1, but it wasn’t enough as the North Stars sealed the deal with an empty netter to win the game 8-6.
Flin Flon outshot Battlefords 45 to 41. Kenny Marquart stopped 30/37 shots. Harmon Laser-Hume stopped 3/3 shots. The Bombers went 4/6 on the power play and stopped Battlefords 4/5 on the penalty kill.
Overall this past week, Flin Flon gained 4 out of a possible 6 points. The Bombers record now sits at 40-4-2-0. They are still the #1 Ranked team in the CJHL for a 15th straight week and still #1 in the SJHL with 82 points.