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.
A disappointing home stand makes the road feel friendlier. The Flin Flon Bombers are hoping to bounce back after losing to the Estevan Bruins 5-2 and Weyburn Red Wings 6-3 last weekend. The Bombers started their road trip with an 8-1 loss against the Humboldt Broncos. "Anything less than 2-2 would be extremely frustrating," Stokes said on Tuesday. "Preferably 4-0, but I don't know if that's realistic playing four games on the road in five days. Certainly your goal is to win every game." Today and tomorrow are match ups with the Battlefords North Stars, who hadn't lost in 10 games as of Wednesday. Stokes said he wasn't concerned with his team playing the hot North Stars. "No, because our best games have been against the top clubs," he said. "There's a lot of parity right now so it's tough to say who are the top clubs and who aren't based on the standings to date." "Battleford is obviously a good team, and I think it's been 10 games without a loss, but five of them have been won in a shootout or overtime," he added. "They're finding ways to win. It's not like they're blowing anybody out." That statement proves true as the North Stars have won just four of those games by three or more goals. Specialty teams statistics between both Flin Flon and Battlefords were similar prior to the Bombers' game against Humboldt. Flin Flon's power play was ranked seventh, one spot ahead of Battlefords at 14.3 per cent, going 24/168, while the Stars fired at 13.9 per cent after scoring 22 times on 158 chances. Battlefords PK worked 85.5 per cent of the time, allowing 24 goals on 165 chances. The Bombers killed 80.1 per cent of their penalties, having allowed 33 goals on 166 chances. The big difference on the penalty kill is that the team has struggled in their last five games. The PK went 14/60 for 76.7 per cent. Stokes said he isn't concerned in that area, as he knows where the team needs to improve. See 'Bombers' P.# Con't from P.# 'Problems' "We've given up a ton of 5-on-3 goals," he said. "Now I don't care what you do on the PK, but when you get from this level and beyond, 5-on-3's are death. A big majority of our problems have been 5-on-3." The road trip ends in Kindersley, which ended their six-game losing skid against the Nipawin Hawks 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday. Stokes indicated that goaltending has got to be good. Goalie Mike Nichol, who served the third and final game of his suspension against Humboldt, will be available to play. He had been listed day-to-day with a chipped tooth from his fight with Estevan goalie Joel Graham. As for Calvin Bartel, both he and Stokes agree that his play will get better with more action. The other key is secondary scoring. To improve that, Stokes broke up Dennis Kubat's line. Reid MacLeod is now with Tommy Castonguay and Braden Olszewski. "You hate to break up a combination that's playing as well as they are," Stokes said. "I've been around too long, and you can't be a one-line hockey team. Eventually what's going to happen when everybody sees that you have no secondary scoring, they're going to start paying special attention to that group and you're going to get certain lines against it and certain defences against it and be somewhat contained." Captain Blake Rolston will take MacLeod's spot with Kubat and Pierre-Luc Boucher. It's a move that Rolston welcomes. "They both move the puck really well," he said. "They're both really smart players to play with so I don't think there will be any trouble getting adapted to playing with them. Hopefully I get my points going now." Confidence Stokes has confidence his captain will perform, as he played well with leading scorers Tyler Beachell and Dalton Pajak last year "and did a pretty good job there of being the grunt guy of the line and working in the small areas and coming up and creating loose pucks." "I think he'll fit in fine there," Stokes added. "Blake's a pretty solid all around guy. I'm just hoping with Reid being a little more dynamic offensively, can add spark to that second (line)." Rolston said the importance of this trip is huge. "We kind of blew those two games at home to get up to .500, so we want to at least split the road trip and get back up in the mix of things," he added. "The team just needs to regroup after the two home losses and get some confidence back." Aside from specialty teams being key, Stokes wants to see consistency. "We've really been up and down like a yo-yo, where we take two steps forward, and we take two steps back," Stokes explained. "We got to continue to take steps forward, and that doesn't mean that you're expected to win every game that you play, but I just don't feel we've been near consistent enough."10/27/2006
