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 was a zoo in the Whitney Forum after Mackenzie Groenewegen scored the game-winning goal for the Flin Flon Bombers over the Melfort Mustangs on Sunday. The frenzy started when Dennis Kubat's backhand shot on the power play that beat Dustin MacDonald on his glove hand with 4:35 left to tie it at one. Fifty-four seconds later came Groenewegen's goal that had 1,152 fans roaring on their feet. "The fans in the Whitney are just amazing," said Groenewegen, who for this game earned the hard hat chosen by the players. "They're a definite sixth man out there for us and it's just awesome to play in front of a crowd like that." In a do or die situation, the Bombers showed up and it was the first time in the series that the Mustangs were kept to a single goal, which came early in the second. "We played with some patience," said Bombers coach-GM, Doug Stokes after the game. "I thought we played pretty well without the puck and really limited their amount of good opportunities." One area the Bombers did a good job on was penalty killing. The Mustangs managed their only goal on special teams as Andrew Wasmuth beat Zane Kalemba 18 seconds into the period, but that's all they could muster in seven tries. Though the Bombers killed penalties well, they still made it hard on themselves with their inability to clear the puck more often. Offensively the Bombers had enough chances to finish with more than two goals, but MacDonald made some good and lucky saves. He faced 30 shots, stopping 28. Kalemba had his best game of the series, stopping 24 of 25 shots. "He maybe hasn't played as well as he's capable of playing," Stokes said, "but that was the Zane Kalemba tonight and he played very very well." With Braden Olszewski already out for two games, the Bombers received a scare when Blake Rolston got hurt in the third as he was hit along the boards going to the net. Trainer Randy Henley tended to Rolston, who knelt on the ice for a few minutes. Fortunately, he would take just a few shifts off. During Game 5 in Melfort on Saturday, Rolston nearly won the game in overtime but was robbed by MacDonald, who dove and caught the puck. The Bombers headed into the third down 4-1 as they struggled to impress the 200-plus Bomber fans and family who came to support them. They had spurts of solid play. There was a momentum shift when they scored three goals, starting with Dalton Pajak's first of two, in the third to even the score. The heartbreaker came three minutes into the extra period when the Bombers couldn't clear the puck. The Mustangs celebrated their 5-4 win and headed back to the Whitney Forum for what could have been their series clincher.
