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Bombers remain undefeated Third place in Dodge Conference

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 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 three-point weekend for the Flin Flon Bombers, but it could very easily have been zero or four points for either team. The Melfort Mustangs and Flin Flon Bombers matched up very well, as both teams played a hot and cold style of game on both Friday and Saturday night. The Bombers walked away with a 4-2 win on Friday night, but both teams have to be happy with a 2-2 tie on Saturday night, as neither team looked like they wanted the win at times. After a tentative first period on Friday night, the Bombers played a terrible second period and were lucky to walk away with the score still tied heading into the third period. Shots after the first period were 7-7, but Melfort dominated the second period after an early two-man advantage for the Bombers. Craig Parks scored the first goal of the game at 2:55 during the five-on-three power-play, with Conrad Wilgenbusch and Derek Blais assisting. Unfortunately, the Bombers took the rest of the period off. Goaltender Brett Koscielny faced a lot of rubber as the Bombers were out shot 16-9, but only allowed one goal. Kyle Schisler scored at 10:01 from Jade Hine to tie the game heading into the final frame. The Bombers controlled the third period offensively, scoring three unanswered goals, but they gave up a scary goal with under a minute to play. Donald Milburn, seeing his first action of the season, scored his first goal at 4:55 from John Iron and Ryan Boak. Derek Blais scored shorthanded and unassisted at 10:44, and Milburn's second of the game from Derek Gallagher and John Iron came at 14:44. With under a minute to play, the Bomber breakout strategy collapsed as Evan Folden stripped Jeff Lapointe of the puck behind the Bomber net and scored uncontested at 19:30. Also at 19:30, Flin Flon's Daryl Fransoo took on Ted Unrau at centre ice, setting the tone for Saturday's rematch. The Bombers outshot the Mustangs 18-7 in the third period, making up for their lackluster effort in the second period. Shots in the game were 34-30 in favour of Flin Flon, who went 1/5 on the power play and held Melfort scoreless on six tries with the man advantage. On Saturday, both teams came out of the gate a little stronger, and the teams were tied at 1-1 after a good first period of action. Joey Moggach beat goaltender Anton Winter with a wrist shot from the left side at 1:03 to open the scoring. The Bombers looked good until a defensive collapse in front of goaltender Troy Ciernia, who had no chance to save Rylan Gebhar's shot on the power play at 17:49. For the second night in a row, after an early power-play goal, the Bombers took the remainder of the period off. Ryan Boak gave the Bombers the lead at 1:57, flipping a loose puck over Winter, with assists going to Donald Milburn and Kyle Holmes, who was making his debut in a Bomber uniform. The 17-year-old had a lot of good scoring chances early in the game, and people were talking about him in the lobby during the intermissions. Shortly after the goal, Fransoo dropped the gloves with Roan Blampin, and the two went the distance. I would score the bout a draw, although Blampin threw a lot of phantom punches. The Mustangs took most of the momentum for the rest of the period, but Ciernia was up to the task, as the Bombers were out shot 17-6 in the second period but held a 2-1 lead heading into the third. Flin Flon came out hard in the third period, but the Mustangs were still able to salvage a tie, as Matt Fennell scored the only goal of the period at 9:33. At 14:35, Evan Folden took two whacks at at Ciernia after he had covered the puck. Defenceman Jeff Lapointe stood up for his goaltender, and lets just say that Folden won't be messing with a Bomber netminder any time soon. Both teams had plenty of good scoring chances in the final five minutes of play. The Bombers, who are notorious for taking bad penalties at inopportune times, almost handed Melfort the game on a silver platter. At 16:06, Donald Milburn was nabbed for interference, and at 17:21, Craig Parks was penalized for closing his hand on the puck after a Mustang player slashed his stick out of his hands. The Bombers killed off the penalties, even though Melfort appeared to score with 1:39 left. The goal was called off because it had been redirected by a skate into the net. See 'Third' P.# Con't from P.# With under a minute to play, Derek Gallagher had two shots at beating Winter, but the goaltender made the save both times to keep the game knotted at 2-2. Shots in the third period were 17-5 for Flin Flon. Nothing was decided in overtime, so the game ended in a tie. Final shots on net were 39 each, and each team scored one power-play goal on five chances. With three points this weekend, the Bombers remain in third place in the Dodge conference with eight points, one point behind Humboldt and seven behind Kindersley, although both the Bombers and Broncos have three games in-hand over the Klippers. Melfort is the only team in the SJHL without a win, sitting at 0-4-3 to claim the basement of the Conference. The Bombers will only have a couple of days to recuperate, as they host the Nipawin Hawks tomorrow night. Tomorrow is "Share the Warmth" night, where people attending are asked to donate lightly used sweaters or jackets.

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