It took quite a while, but the Bombers went into the holiday break with a tense shootout victory over La Ronge Saturday.
Flin Flon shook off an early deficit to take a third period lead, then overcame a late tying effort from the host to get a 3-2 win in a 10-round marathon shootout.
Nobody hit the scoresheet until late in the first period, when Dylan Handel opened the scoring for the Wolves, getting sprung on a partial breakaway and stuffing the puck past Flin Flon's Harmon Laser-Hume. La Ronge entered the intermission with the lead, but it wouldn't last long - the ever-dangerous Cole Duperreault found the rebound on a Reece Richmond point shot and slid it past La Ronge's Dawson Smith to tie the game up a minute into the second. That would stand as the period's only goal, as both sides came into the third tied at one.
It was the Bombers' powerplay that got them ahead in the third. With an Ice Wolf in the penalty box, Flin Flon made the home team pay, with Jeremi Tremblay ripping a point shot past Smith and celebrating his way back up the ice with a 2-1 lead. Followed shortly after by La Ronge's Rylan Silzer mugging Liam Bridger on the sideboards and dumping him on the ice - which gave both players two minutes for roughing and 10-minute misconducts - the offences went silent until late.
With about three minutes to go and Jacob Vockler in the box for Flin Flon, it was the Ice Wolves' time for powerplay heroics in the third. With Smith on the bench and a 6-on-4 chance, Kaycee Cole's point shot found its way through traffic and past Laser-Hume, tying the game late and - eventually - forcing overtime.
Each team had shining chances in the overtime period, but both goalies proved up to the task, stopping all comes within the five minutes, including Smith saving a wide-open Jeremi Tremblay breakaway in the dying seconds of the period. A shootout would be required - and it would take a while.
La Ronge's Jacob Visentini would start off, beating Laser-Hume with a backhand. Vockler came in next for Flin Flon - his shot was shouldered wide by Smith. Up next came Ethan Strik for the Ice Wolves, whose shot Laser-Hume knocked away. Jaeden Mercier came next for Flin Flon and made no mistake, beating Smith stick side to tie it up.
From there, the goalies took over the show for several rounds. La Ronge sent Trenton Curtis - nope. Flin Flon sent Tremblay - nope. Walker Jerome for the Ice Wolves? Nope. Duperreault? Nope. Jacob Cossette for La Ronge? Nope. Alexi Sylvestre? Nope. Handel, La Ronge's first goal scorer? Nope. Jaxon Martens? Nope.
La Ronge's Lleyton Shearon finally broke the combo of saves or misses with a shot that got Laser-Hume glove side, doing the Johnny Manziel money fingers celebration back to his team's bench. That left Flin Flon's Bridger with a must-score goal to keep the game alive - and he did just that, popping the puck over Smith and into the net to keep the party going.
Mason Bueckert went next and was stopped by Laser-Hume, who put an extra little bit of sauce on his glove save for good measure. Reece Richmond went next and tried going five-hole on Smith, but played it right into his pads.
Thomas Wright's shot for the Ice Wolves was stopped by a blocker save, while Noah Houle's chance for his first goal as a Bomber was stopped by Smith. Kale Taylor lost his dangle on his chance for La Ronge, putting the chance to win on Flin Flon's Cory King.
King came in, double-clutched on Smith and beat him with a wrist shot glove-side, ending the night with a Flin Flon win and sending 484 Ice Wolves fans home with a lump of coal in their collective stocking.
Laser-Hume made 24 saves on 26 shots - 32 saves if counting shootout chances - while Smith stopped 38 shots in regulation and overtime.
The game was both teams' final battle before the holiday break and of 2022. The Bombers head into the new year on a three-game winning streak and putting up points in seven of their past 10 games.
The Bombers currently sit behind the Ice Wolves in third place in the league, as well as second in the Sherwood division, with 43 points to La Ronge's 45. Those numbers don't tell the full story - despite being two points up on Flin Flon, the Ice Wolves have played a whopping four more games than the Bombers have, meaning the Bombers have a much higher points percentage.
If current trends continue, at the end of this season, the Bombers are on pace to collect 80 points, which would put them second in the league behind only powerhouse Battlefords. By contrast, the Ice Wolves are on pace to collect just 74, which would be below both the Bombers and Humboldt, on pace for 76 points.
Flin Flon will get a chance to tie the Ice Wolves for second place in the league and tops in the Sherwood division in both teams' first game back - in La Ronge on January 3.
