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.
A tired and battered Bomber squad fell by an 8-1 margin to the Kindersley Klippers in Sunday's game in Saskatoon. The Bombers ended the tournament with three losses, as did fellow Dodge Conference rivals the Battlefords Stars and La Ronge Ice Wolves. Finishing with three wins were the Humboldt Broncos, Notre Dame Hounds and Weyburn Red Wings. The Klippers threw everything they had at the Bombers, who were playing their sixth game in seven days. Flin Flon held them off in the first period, but after a goal by Derek Blais 33 seconds into the second period, the momentum started to shift in favour of the Klippers. Stuart Sjoberg assisted on the goal. A timely power-play goal at 8:22 by Justin Wilclynski tied the game for Kindersley. At 15:10 of the second period, the train derailed for the Bombers, when Brad Marcoux scored short-handed. Troy Schwab scored at 16:12 and 19:11, and Chad Seidel netted a goal at 19:35 to make it 5-1 after 40 minutes of play. Kindersley added three more in the third period. Ryan McMullin scored at 3:20, followed by Josh Sim 14 seconds later. The Bombers finally settled down after that, but Jade Boklaschuk would add a goal at 14:15 of the third to cap the scoring at 8-1. "Kindersley played pretty much their best line-up," said coach Ryan Hoffman. "We had some pretty key guys out of our line-up. It was a situation where we got down a couple of goals, and we gave up. I was really disappointed in the effort on Sunday." The Bombers sucked it up and got back to working hard for the last ten minutes of the game, but after taking 25 minutes off, the damage had been done. Due to some nagging injuries, the Bombers still have 26 kids still in camp. Coach Hoffman said he would like to get down in numbers, there are some key players out of the line-up with bad bruises and muscle pulls. Nothing serious, but enough to put guys on the shelf on a day-to-day basis. The Bombers have added some size and toughness to their line-up. In exchange for JJ McGrath, the Bombers picked up Mark Black, a left-winger who played a shift and a half before being thrown out of the tournament on Sunday. "He looked pretty good," said Hoffman. "He's a big, physical guy. He steamrolled a couple guys before he got into a fight in the penalty box, so he's just what the doctor ordered for a little bit of toughness on the left side." Hoffman has also picked up some offence in Joey Moggach, who played 'AAA' Midget in Brandon. He was second in the league in scoring, with 40 goals and 40 assists in 40 games. "Right now, he is probably our most offensive guy," said Hoffman. "He's very smart and creative, offensively. We've got to find a couple of smart guys who are able to keep up with him. He's not a big guy, but he's got a knack for the net." Moggach will be an important weapon on the power-play for the Bombers, and is a key find for a team that lacked in just about every category last year. The Bombers had a good skate on Monday, and will be back in action tonight against the La Ronge Ice Wolves, who will be making a visit to the Whitney Forum. On Wednesday, the Bombers will be traveling to Swan River to take on the Stampeders. Two days off will be the longest break since camp began, and the Bombers will close the exhibition schedule with a game against the Nipawin Hawks in Flin Flon on Saturday. Then they will have a full five days off to hopefully catch their breath before the season opens in La Ronge on September 19. In other Bomber news, trainer Kevin McCallum is a new dad. Kevin and Laurie are proud to announce the arrival of Rawley Andre David McCallum. Rawley was born on Thursday, September 4, weighing in at 8 lbs., 10 oz.
