The Flin Flon Bombers skated away with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Melfort Mustangs on Wednesday.
Flin Flon dominated the opening frame, managing 24 shots and taking a 2-0 lead into intermission.
The first period was slow for Simon Hofley, who turned away all five shots he faced.
A scoreless second period still saw the Bombers fire off another 14 shots on Melfort goaltender Jack Romanuik while Hofley only saw the puck six times.
The second intermission reinvigorated the Mustangs as they came out with spark and scored their first goal at :56, on a power play.
With the score 2-1, the Mustangs didn’t let the Bombers keep the lead any longer as they scored their second marker of the night at 2:58.
Flin Flon had a poor third period in the shots department with only three shots on net while Hofley saw the puck 21 times.
Both goaltenders stopped the remainder of the shots in regulation, sending the game to an extra frame.
A scoreless overtime sent the teams into a shootout where Melfort would start.
Travis Mayan was denied by Hofley and it was a similar story for Austin Calladine.
Things got interesting with the second shooters as both Justin Boyer, for the Mustangs, and Flin Flon’s Dillan McCombie scored.
The third round saw Anthony Pickering and Bomber Brett Boehm denied access as both teams still sat with one goal a piece.
In the fourth round, it was Brandon Sloan up for Melfort, but he couldn’t get the puck past Hofley. AJ Kapcheck gave it a shot, but was also denied.
The fifth round saw both Nick Hermary and Parker Evans-Campbell come up short.
Matt Saunderson and Flin Flon’s Brody Robinson both came away empty-handed as the shootout remained tied at one.
Dawven Berggren came up short against Hofley, but newcomer Connor Bucsis scored the Bombers’ second shootout goal to win the game.
The Bombers earned two points from Wednesday’s win and stayed in second place in the Sherwood Division standings.
In the end, the Bombers fired off a total of 43 shots throughout regulation time, overtime and the shootout. The Mustangs had 34 shots.
The Flin Flon Bombers and Melfort Mustangs put up a good fight, Wednesday night. The Bombers led the Mustangs 2-0 until the third period when Melfort quickly tied the game.
Bombers vet Brock Hounsell made some noise on the ice, as Flin Flon welcomed Melfort to the Whiney Forum. A tied game ended in a shootout win for the Bombers after seven rounds.
PHOTOS BY KELLY CARRINGTON
