That's more like it.
The Bombers wore down Melfort Wednesday night, picking up a 3-0 win on the road against the Mustangs.
Flin Flon snagged win number 39 on the season, beating a Melfort team that still clinched a playoff spot despite the loss.
The Bombers struck first, about six minutes into the first. Noah Houle took advantage of a bad break, taking a penalty but coming out of the box to jump into a partial breakaway, coming in on Melfort's James Venne and beating him clean to open the scoring.
The rest of the period was back-and-forth hockey, with neither team getting a clear edge but no shortage of rough stuff. Kylynn Olafson collided with Melfort's Leith Olafson (they are not related) and both went to the box following the hit - Kylynn for boarding, Leith for unsportsmanlike conduct after the hit.
Controversy came for the Bombers at the end of the first, as Carter Anderson, playing his first game back after battling an illness during the team's southern road swing, took both an errant high stick from Leith Olafson gunning for a puck and a sneaky stick to the groin from Aidyn Hutchinson through his legs from behind. Anderson hit the ice and was slow to get to his feet. Despite the double team, neither Melfort player was penalized, then Anderson was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for yelling at officials about the non-call once the intermission began.
With one of their top players in the box for at least half the second period, the Bomber offence never managed to get traction in the second, but Harmon Laser-Hume was on his game to bail the team out when needed. Flin Flon only got three shots in the second period - the fewest shots the team has had in a full 20-minute period all season - but the 1-0 lead was still intact going into the third.
The offence came back for the third, and it showed up fast. Just 13 seconds into the period, the Bombers won the draw, gained the zone and Alexi Sylvestre got one shot, then received a quick pass behind the net off the rebound and beat Venne. Midway through the period, Anderson put it out of reach by scoring his sixth goal in his last four games, being sprung on a breakaway and roofing it over Venne.
Anthony Piccininno almost made it 4-0 with the net empty, putting the puck in the net in the final minute - the goal was later called back, as officials deemed that Piccininno, who shot the puck from just outside the blueline, did so before Matt Egan had a chance to touch up for offside.
The game was stopped for several moments as referee Josh Saskiw got caught in the final moments between two players coming together for a hit, with Saskiw taking the worst of it and being knocked to the ice - training staff from both teams came to his aid and he was eventually able to leave the ice under his own power.
Laser-Hume made 33 saves on 33 shots on the night, earning his third shutout of the season and the seventh shutout by a Bomber netminder this year. Venne stopped 26 shots on the night.
With the victory, the Bombers now sport a 39-3-2-0 record in just 44 games, becoming the first SJHL team this season to break 80 points. With exactly 80 points, the Bombers are now 12 points ahead of second-place Battlefords, who will come to Flin Flon for a pair of games this weekend. With the win, the Bombers have cleared the amount of points they racked up all season last year, doing so with 12 games left to play.
One more win in their final 12 games will give the Bombers 40 on the year, rarefied air for the franchise historically.
Despite playing junior hockey each season since 1948, the Bombers have only cleared the 40 win barrier in a regular season eight times - four straight seasons in the Western Canadian Junior Hockey League from the mid-1960s to early 1970s, one year in the Norman Junior Hockey League, one season in the MJHL and twice in the SJHL.
The team has only broken that mark in junior A hockey once in the last five decades - in 2000-01, when the Bombers won 44 out of 62 games and hosted the RBC Cup, finishing second in the national tournament. Both of the other years the Bombers won 40 or more in the junior A ranks led to a national championship tournament berth - the first, in 1956-57, saw the Bombers win the Memorial Cup after winning 46 times in 53 games.
The team's all-time wins in a regular season record is 47, set in both 1967-68 and 1968-69 in the WCHL, the precursor to today's WHL. Both marks were set in 60-game seasons, unlike today's 56-game SJHL season. The Bombers lost the league final in the first year, then won it in the second.
