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Jonathon Naylor Editor The Flin Flon Bombers extended their winless skid to five games over the weekend as their injury-plagued lineup continued to struggle. Facing the La Ronge Ice Wolves twice, the Bombers suffered a 3-2 shootout loss at home Friday before being outgunned 7-5 on the road the following night. 'I think the biggest problem has been, we've been injured,' says coach and GM Mike Reagan. 'We haven't had a full lineup. We've had one game where we've had a full lineup since probably a month before Christmas, and you know, guys are banged up and it's just a tough stretch right now.' Missed six Dylan Balaski, who had been on a better-than-a-point-a-game pace, has been out for the last six contests with an undisclosed injury. Reagan considers the centreman to be one of his MVPs. 'Whenever he's been out of the lineup, we've struggled a little bit,' he says. 'He just seems to make everyone around him better.' Flin Flon has also been missing talented winger Jesse Mysiorek, acquired from Kindersley in late 2011. Mysiorek is another offensive force with 36 points in 44 games. Landon Hiebert, the small but skilled rookie winger, has also been out with an injury. See 'We...' on pg. 4 Continued from pg. 1 'When we traded for Jesse Mysiorek, we figured we'd have three solid lines,' says Reagan, 'and we've never had those lines together since he's got here.' Reagan hopes to get one or two of his injured players back on the bench before this weekend's games against Humboldt. Injuries were clearly a factor to the Bomber coaching staff and fans alike on Friday as Flin Flon blew a 2-1 lead late in the third period. McCombie (Riley Storzuk, James McNulty) started the scoring with a shorthanded marker in the first period, his 24th of the season. The lead lasted barely a minute before La Ronge's Graham Smerek (Aaron Enns, Zac Ashdown) potted a powerplay marker . Not known for his scoring prowess, blueliner Brock Hounsell (Jay Young, McCombie) retook the lead for Flin Flon less than five minutes into the second frame. It was his third goal of the season. But Ashdown (Marc Andre Carre, Enns) made it a brand new game with less than five minutes to go in the third. Overtime solved nothing, sending the action into a shootout. Flin Flon went scoreless while Carre was the hero with La Ronge's lone lamp-lighter. Devin Buffalo was a busy man in the Flin Flon net, facing 45 shots _ 10 more than Myles Hovdebo at the opposite end of the rink. Reagan was disappointed but said he does not consider a shootout loss to be a true loss since the Bombers still earned a point. No better Things got no better for his team Saturday night in La Ronge. The Bombers twice blew the lead en route to a 7-5 defeat that saw the Ice Wolves leapfrog over Flin Flon for third in the Bauer Conference. Storzuk earned a hat trick in a losing cause. Bomber goals also went to Brett Penner and Konrad Litke. Young picked up a pair of assists, with helpers also going to McNulty, Brandt Weldon and Dallen Hall. Flin Flon was again outshot, this time 49 to 29 as the reliable Buffalo did his best to hold the fort. The Bombers' winless streak now stands at five games, and they have won just three of their last 10. But Reagan said he saw signs over the weekend that his team is coming out of its funk. They will look to rebound tonight as they host the defensively sound Yorkton Terriers. It's the first of a dozen games remaining in Flin Flon's regular season. Though the Bombers have allowed the second-most goals in the Bauer Conference, Reagan has no complaints with his goaltending tandem of Buffalo and Andy Desautels. 'I think it's team defence that has been the problem,' he says. 'It hasn't been our goaltending. With some of our losses, I look at the save-percentage and both of those guys are above 90 per cent, which gives you a chance to win every night.' With the playoffs still a month away, Reagan said though the Bombers would like to finish in the top three in their conference, they are not going to go overboard to get there. He said a healthy Bomber squad likes their chances in the post-season whether they enter through the survivor series or the semi-finals. 'I think the main thing is, we have to be healthy to give ourselves a chance to win,' Reagan says.
