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The Flin Flon Bombers decided it was time to hit the road. After completing a three-game home stand, the team left yesterday for their first long road trip since the Saskatoon Showcase on Sept. 23-24. They faced the Notre Dame Hounds yesterday. Due to press time, the score is not available. They then play the Weyburn Red Wings today and the Estevan Bruins on Sunday. Of the three teams, Estevan is the only one the Bombers have defeated this season. Heading into the trip, Bombers coach-GM Doug Stokes wanted to see his team take two of three games. "You'd like to get all three, but whether that's realistic I doubt that it is," Stokes said on Tuesday, as his team faced the top trio in the Sherwood Conference. "They all got similarity in some sense that I think they're all pretty good skating clubs and they got pretty good work ethic," the Bombers coach explained. "I think Estevan is a little bit different than Weyburn and Notre Dame. Maybe a little bit bigger overall Ð a little tougher on the offensive end on pucks Ð but Weyburn and Notre Dame, both teams with real good work ethic." He added that they are well coached and make things tough on opponents to generate offence. The Hounds, one of the Bombers most recent opponent, beat them on the power play. Heading into their matchup, the Hounds' power play ranked ninth, while the Bombers penalty killing was 11th. "They had three power-play goals, but two were not a very good variety in all reality," Stokes said. "The first...the goalie goes to play the puck behind the net, decides to leave it, so it's basically an empty net goal. It's not a structured power-play or anything. Then the third goal was a shot on most nights I'm sure Mike (Nichol) would be the first one to say he would stop. In this league, if you take too many penalties, you're going to be on the wrong end of it." The Bombers hope to clip Weyburn of their wings. The Dwight McMillan-coached team victimized their former goalie Eric Potvin during a 5-1 win. In that game the Bombers headed into the third period down 2-1 and then had a meltdown allowing three goals on 13 shots. Two goals came on the man advantage. With Nichol between the pipes, the goals shouldn't come as easy. Against Estevan, Stokes expects the Bruins to come out harder after the Bombers defeated them 5-2 in Saskatoon. "It doesn't change from their perspective or ours that there's a lot of parity in this league right now," he said. "You look at the standings from first to last and I think it's a six point difference or an eight point difference with games in hand, so it's tight. There's no weak sisters in this league that you can say we can just show up and get two points." Going into the Notre Dame, the Bombers sat 10 points behind the Itech Conference-leading Humboldt Broncos, but they are only seven points out of second place. Alternate captain and defenceman David Holinaty said he felt confident about the trip. "I have this good feeling in the room right now and I also have a good feeling that I think we're going to come out successful on this road trip," he said. "We're starting to get a few wins here and turn things around. "To win three in a row here would put us above .500, that's really what we need," Holinaty continued. "We gotta start catching up to teams ahead of us and start making up some ground." To help give the Bombers a good start for their trip, they were scheduled to leave Wednesday at 4 p.m. "You're looking at probably eight (hours) and a little bit to get to Notre Dame," Stokes said. "That's too far to travel in the same day and get off the bus and play. I don't even think that gives you a realistic chance of winning." Stokes admitted that long trips have been a problem for the team, especially if they have to play immediately. "There's no doubt about it and it's the same for teams that come up here the same day that they got to play," he said. "When you're traveling in excess of five hours, get off the bus and play, it's very difficult. For economic reasons you have to do it and had this been a one-day shot, we probably would have done that and played the best to our ability to what that trip involved."
