The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon Midget 'AA' Bombers attended the Brandon Tournament of Champions the weekend of February 10, 11, 12 and 13. Another good showing from the boys and here are the results. Game 1, 7:15 p.m., February 10, Sportplex Eight hours on a bus seemed to take its toll on the boys in this one as they would seem sluggish at times but still managed to stay in the game. The Brandon Wheat Kings were the opponent and they would get on the scoresheet first, scoring a powerplay goal just over three minutes into the contest. Matt Kritzer would tie the game up at 10:27 on the powerplay, assist Wintoneak, Spiller. Brandon would get that one back 26 seconds later to grab a 2-1 lead. Two later goals Ð a powerplay goal with 1:06 left in the first and an even strength goal with 40 seconds left Ð gave the Wheaties a 4-1 lead after one period. As they have done all year long, these young men dug deep in the second period. They came out banging and crashing bodies and won the second period. Walker Wintoneak would get a powerplay goal at 12:05, assist (Oulette, Spiller). Then with 11:41 left in the second Wintoneak would score a shorthanded goal, assist Pruden, to make it 4-3 after two periods. The third period would start intensely, but Brandon would score a powerplay goal at the 16:47 mark. Lee Johnston would get the Bombers to within one goal again as he would score a powerplay goal at 14:42, assist Travis Ford. Brandon would go up 6-4 at 13:39 and then make it 7-4 at the 10:02 mark. This would spell the end of Ryan Scott's night as Shayne Pearson would come in and shut the door the rest of the way. However, the Bombers would not get any closer and the game would end 7-4. Shots on goal would see Brandon get 42 shots while Flin Flon fired 28 shots on Brandon. Both teams went 3/8 on the powerplay with Flin Flon scoring a shorthanded goal. Game star for the Bombers was Ryan Scott. Game 2, 12:15 p.m., February 11, Kinsmen Arena Flin Flon 8, Regina Sharks 1 This game would see Flin Flon run into a hot goalie as the boys would fire 17 shots on goal and come up empty in the first. Regina would get on the board first with a powerplay goal with 1:37 left in the first making it 1-0 Regina after one. The second period would be a different story as nothing would be able to stop these boys from what they wanted to achieve. Two even strength goals, a powerplay goal and three shorthanded goals in 31 seconds would propel the boys to a 6-1 lead after two periods. 11:07 Pegg (Pruden, Ford), 9:12 Danis (Pruden, Jacobson), P.P. 6:29 Wintoneak (Spiller, Johnston), S.H. 6:05 Wintoneak S.H. 5:58 Pruden (Danis) S.H. 1:14 Ford (Spiller, Wintoneak). The third period would see Ford get a powerplay goal at 16:20 assisted by Wintoneak, Rice. Then Spiller would get the last goal of the night at 15:48, assist to Wintoneak. Flin Flon would fire 51 shots on net and go 3/9 on the powerplay with 3 S.H. goals. Shayne Pearson would play a steady game in net for the Bombers facing 18 shots. Regina went 1/9 on the P.P. Walker Wintoneak was game star. Game 3, 9:30 p.m., February 11, Optimist Flin Flon 10, Pembina Twins 0 Flin Flon S.O.G. 49, P.P. 2/5, S.H. 1; Pembina S.O.G. 7, P.O. 0/5. The Bombers totally dominated this game from start to finish. First period 1. 13:14 Spiller (Pruden, Phair) 2. 8:40 Kritzer (Pegg) 3. 8:27 Rice (Pegg, Kritzer) 4. 6:34 Spiller (Ford) 5. Spiller (Bear, Wintoneak) P.P. 5:40 5-0 Bombers after one Second period 6. 9:58 Pruden (Wintoneak) Third period 7. 11:40 Spiller (Bear, Pegg) 8. 9:57 Spiller (Wintoneak) 9. 9:43 Pegg 10. 5:52 Wintoneak (Bear, Johnston) P.P. Ryan Scott got the shutout and Kiley Spiller got game star for the Bombers. Game 4, 7:00 p.m., February 12, Keystone Flin Flon 10, Southdale Lakers 1 Flin Flon S.O.G. 52, P.P. 2/5, S.H. 1 goal; Southdale S.O.G. 22, P.P. 0/6 This game again was totally dominated by the Bombers as they got to play in the home of the WHL Brandon Wheat Kings and they did not disappoint. First period 1. 9:22 Flin Flon Ford (Spiller, Wintoneak) P.P. 2. 2:27 Flin Flon Kritzer (Phair, Pruden) S.H. 3. 2:37 Flin Flon Spiller (Ford) 4. 2:31 Flin Flon Spiller 5. 2:07 Flin Flon Ford (Wintoneak) 6. 2:01 Southdale Second period 7. 9:04 Flin Flon Oulette (Pruden, Phair) P.P. 8. 6:11 Flin Flon Ford (Wintoneak, Spiller) 9. 2:10 Flin Flon Wintoneak (Jacobson, Crone) Third period 10. 10:35 Flin Flon Oulette (Pruden, Ford) 11. 4:37 Flin Flon Crone (Bear, Davis) Shayne Pearson had another steady night between the pipes and Travis Ford got the Bomber game star. See 'Entertaining' P.# Con't from P.# Game 5, Crossover Semi Final No. 2, 8:00 a.m. Optimist The round robin would see the Bombers finish second in their pool and face Morris-St. Jean Wild who finished first in their pool. This would turn out to be the best edge-of-your-seat entertainment any hockey game could possibly give. This game would start like they usually do with this Bomber team and that is a rabid forecheck and punishing, bone crunching hits that saw some Morris players limp off in pain that they never knew could be handed out. The Bombers' first goal would come on their trademark forecheck as behind the net two Morris players would be pummelled into the glass like projectiles from Rudy Pegg and Cody Rice hits. Rice would feed the loose puck perfectly out into the slot where Kiley Spiller made no mistake. The goal came S.H. at 11:16. 1-0 Flin Flon after one. Then two hot goalies would take over as time and time again the Morris goalies would foil the Bombers' chances and at the other end Ryan Scott stood tall for his team. The Bombers got a 5 on 3 half way through the second period and fired many shots but just could not find the back of the net. The score was 1-0 after two periods with the Bombers hitting two posts and Morris hitting a post and a crossbar. The third period again would have intense, edge-of-your-seat end-to-end action. Then finally with 11:13 left in the third, virtually a seeing eye shot from the point that never left the ice surface, went straight in past a screened Scott. The rest of the period saw no scoring but with a minute and a half left in the game Travis Ford was sent in alone but the Morris goalie got his right shoulder on a shot that was labelled for the top corner. Then Morris grabbed the puck from behind the net and went the other way springing a man homefree on Ryan Scott, but he would also get a shoulder on a shot that was labelled. 1-1 after three periods. A five minute overtime period followed which the Bombers dominated outshooting Morris 5-1 but just could not find the back of the net. 1-1 after overtime. Then the dreaded shootout would follow which I am personally not a fan of. Morris would win the game as Flin Flon went 0-4 in the shootout and Morris went 2-3. There are two arenas side by side where we played so fans and players started filing into our game with seven minutes left in the game, filling the arena. I've never heard a rink so loud at 9:30 in the morning and talked to many parents after the game, but I think I can sum it up best from what Larry Wintoneak said. "The boys left it all on the ice today, what a game." Morris-St. Jean Wild 2, Flin Flon Bombers 1 Morris-St. Jean S.O.G. 27, O.T.S. 1, P.P. 0/8; Flin Flon S.O.G. 38, O.T.S. 5, S.H. 1 goal Ryan Scott got the Bomber game star. Summary: We are still trying to get a tournament going in the next couple of weeks. Provincials in March will see us start the tournament against Thompson on Friday, March 11 in Swan River. Also in our pool is Swan River and OCN. In the other pool there are Steinbach, Portage, The Pas and Norway House.
