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.
It's alive! It's alive! Dr. Braden Olszewskistein has given life to the Bombers power play. Okay, okay, it might be early to jump on the Olszewski bandwagon, but the 5-7 165 pound center/winger helped the man advantage during their recent three-game road trip. After being shut out on the man advantage against the Battlefords' North Stars during an 8-3 loss, the Bombers rebounded to beat the Kindersley Klippers 5-4 and 4-3 while going a combined four for nine on the power-play, which equals 44 per cent. Bombers interim coach-GM Brad Snyder liked what he saw. "He's very offensive-minded, he's got good speed, controls the puck down low phenomenally for a little guy," Snyder says of Olszewski. "When he gets the puck, he controls the whole thing. There's no doubt that his skill level is very, very high. What it brought was when he comes out from behind that net, with so much speed out of that corner, everybody's got to give him some space. What it does is opens up that whole top end. He comes up high on the puck, our defensemen got a lot of room, because everyone has to come down. He is coming around the net with that puck, you got to pick him up or you're going to be in trouble." Olszewski collected a goal and an assist against the Klippers and scored his first goal as a Bomber in the third period against the North Stars. "We didn't have a very good start and I think with Braden, just getting in the lineup with a couple of practices, he was pretty nervous in the Battlefords' game," the coach explains on the Battlefords' game. While the Bombers power play is showing signs of life, they also showed the ability to come from behind when down by a couple of goals. In the first game against Kindersley, the team fell behind 4-2 after having a 2-1 lead. The comeback started with a goal by Tyler Beachell, who now has 13 goals. "I thought we showed a lot of character after coming back from a 4-2 deficit going into the third period," says Travis Crickard, the Bombers back-up. " We can't take time off in games because if we do against tougher teams, it will be harder to come back." The second game comeback started in the second period trailing 2-0. The Bombers out scored the Klippers 4-1 in that period. The outburst began with a goal by Dalton Pajak, who added another and collected an assist along with a fight at the end of the game with Brad Harding. "They decided they would like to have a go with Pajak," explains Snyder, on the Klipper players who wanted nothing to do with Mackenzie Groenewegen and Mike McKinna, "and it was Harding, I think it was the guy, that went after Pajak. I don't think he'll do that again. That was a bad mistake on his part for a fighter to go after a goal scorer and to take a licking like he did, it's not a good move." The Bombers coach felt that move by Harding was a cheap shot. "I thought the other coach didn't play it very smart," he says. "I thought that Harding did a really dumb move. I would hope that the league would do something about that." Against the North Stars, the Bombers didn't get the result they wanted and former captain Clayton Geiger scored against his former mates to make the loss harder to take. The Bombers had a 2-1 lead going into the second period, but allowed four goals, one short-handed and the other a power-play marker. Zane Kalemba faced 33 shots and stopped 25. In the second game against the Klippers, he came in to relieve Crickard, who didn't get a lot of help from his defense, who let the Klippers score three second-period goals. "I don't think there was one goal that Crick can be faulted for," Snyder says confidently. "I thought Crick played excellent, I thought he made some saves, some shots he's making two saves, three saves and they were just getting the puck by our defensemen and getting to the net, which was totally uncalled for. So we had to do something to address the problemÉyou can't change 17 skaters." With the two victories versus the Klippers, the Bombers now have five wins against Kindersley and a 6-17-0-1 record in 24 games for the season.
