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.
The Flin Flon Bombers will be looking to improve on their 1-0-3 record this weekend when the Melfort Mustangs are in town for a couple of games. Melfort has struggled so far this season, winless in their first five games, but Flin Flon can't afford to take them lightly so early in the season. Spirits have been high around the Whitney Forum since the Bombers handed the Humboldt Broncos their only loss of the season last Saturday. The Mustangs haven't played since Sunday, when they were humiliated by the visiting Melville Millionaires 9-1. The key to beating Melfort is to score early and score often, as the Mills' scored two goals in the first minute, and the Mustangs never recovered. Leading the Bombers so far this season has been veterans Tyler Stinton and Andrew Skrabek, at least on the scoreboard. Both forwards have six points in four games. Skrabek was an obvious front-runner for the player of the week honours with six points in two games to lead the Bombers over the Broncos, but the award was given to Kindersley's Troy Schwab, who had five points in four games. Melfort's leading scorer is Jade Hine, who has accumulated four points in four games. The Bombers have three players who have also tallied four points. Joey Moggach, Craig Parks and Derek Blais have all made it to the score sheet four times. Defencemen Conrad Wilgenbusch and Simon McCusker have stepped up their offensive contribution with three points, and Stewart Sjoberg has also scored three points. One surprising stat this season is the number of shorthanded goals scored. In four games, the Bombers have scored three shorthanded goals. Last season, over 60 games, the team accumulated only four shorthanded goals. Scoring goals hasn't been a problem for the Bombers so far this season, but preventing them has. So far this season, the Bombers have scored 19 goals in four games, but allowed 18 goals against. If the Bombers want to compete on a regular basis in the Dodge Conference this season, they will have to do a better job of taking care of their own zone. Numerous times this year opposition players have been allowed to walk around in the Bomber zone with little or no resistance. The veteran group of defence on the Flin Flon Bomber lineup need to keep their feet moving, especially when retreating into their own end from the neutral zone. This week in practice, the Bombers spent a lot of time working on neutral zone play - rotations and player assignments. Emphasis was also put on special teams play. "The two games against Humboldt put an exclamation point on how important special teams are," said coach Ryan Hoffman, who has special permission from league president Laury Ryan to watch the games from the press box during his ten game suspension. Hoffman noted that while the Mustangs haven't had a great start to the season, they are not to be taken lightly. "They're still looking for their first win," he said. "They'll come in here battling hard to scratch for whatever points they can get. They are a better team than their record shows. We can't afford to take a look at their record and expect an easy two or four points this weekend. On the injury front, Donald Milburn says he is at 100% and will be in the lineup for the first time this season on Friday. The only player movement this week was by Jordan Gudelot, who decided to return home. The Bombers have 25 players in camp right now. They have until December 1 to be down to 21 players Coach Hoffman says that the toughest decision so far has been in the goaltending position, where Paul Reimer, Brett koscielny and Troy Ciernia have all played well in their starts. "We want a chance to see everyone play at least twice," said Hoffman. "After that, we'll go with the hot guy until we can move one. They're not making the decision very easy on us, but that's a nice problem to have." The Bombers and Mustangs will hook up on Friday and Saturday at the Whitney Forum. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
