One point, but not two - the Bombers took league-leading Humboldt to a shootout Friday night, but couldn't get the W.
Humboldt staved off the Bombers 4-3 to pick up their second win over the Bombers in the last three games.
Flin Flon's first period was bookmarked by a pair of unforced errors. The first was committed by Bomber netminder Cal Schell, who went out of his crease to dive and poke check a puck away from an advancing Broncos player. Fortunately for Schell, he got the puck - unfortunately for Schell, he hit it right onto the stick of Humboldt's Connor McGrath, who got an early Christmas gift and filled the empty net.
The second came from Jeremi Tremblay, who entered the zone on Humboldt goalie William Dyke and was called offside - but despite the call, put the puck through Dyke's legs after the whistle anyway. That caused a fracas and some minor tussling, putting Humboldt on a powerplay that they nearly capitalized on. The Broncos led 1-0 after one.
McGrath scored once more in the second, beating Schell clean stick-side with a powerplay wrister. After two middling periods, the Bombers woke up in the third, with Jacob Vockler sniping one past Dyke early on to get the Bombers on the board. Ethan Zielke did the same for the Broncos a minute later, but not long after that, Tremblay found the twine off a partial break to bring Flin Flon within one.
The Bombers pushed Humboldt late and caught a lucky break in the final minutes - Humboldt took a late high-sticking penalty, giving the Bombers a two-man advantage after pulling Schell.
That advantage paid off with 9.9 seconds left on the clock, with Nathan Gagne banking one underneath Dyke and in the net to tie it up. Ugly a goal as it may have been, the Bomber faithful found it beautiful, sending the teams to overtime. Despite frequent momentum shifts, no goals were scored, sparking the Bombers' first shootout of the year.
In the shootout, Humboldt's Matthew Perkins and Alex Morozoff both beat Schell, while Vockler and Gagne came up short, giving Humboldt the victory.
Schell made 35 saves on the night, while Dyke stopped 34 pucks in the win.
Both teams will face off again Saturday night at the Whitney Forum.
