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.
Just like Clint Eastwood stared down his enemy in all his western movies, Flin Flon Bombers goalie Calvin Bartel won the battle against Yorkton Terriers stopper Lynden Sammartino at the Whitney Forum on Thursday night. Bartel stopped 36 of 37 shots while Sammartino turned aside 44 of 46 shots in a 2-1 loss. The victory was Bartel's third and snapped the Bombers nine-game losing streak. "I felt really good," Bartel said. "I was pretty pumped about today's game and everybody was excited and ready to go tonight." The Terriers had to wait until 4:22 into the third to beat Bartel on a 5-on-3 advantage when Rhett Reinhart made a nice goal mouth feed to Derek Serdachny to even the score. That was Bartel's only blemish. "It was a 5-on-3 and they made a good play there and Reinhart was really patient seeing the guy off the post on the far side," said Bombers' coach-GM Doug Stokes. Ending the losing skid started off right when Reid MacLeod scored his 11th goal on the power play as the puck trickled through Sammartino. The game winner was credited to Dennis Kubat, who got his team-leading 13th after a lucky bounce beat the Terriers netminder. Despite how they got the win, the team knew they would. "There was a feeling in the room that the losing streak was going to be over," Bartel said. "The defence played really well. They kept all the shots to the outside, which makes my job real easy. Kept odd man rushes and high percentage scoring shots down." The Bombers did play a solid game and made few mistakes like in the past which have cost them. "It feels unreal," Bombers defenceman David Holinaty said. "I think everyone feels like a million bucks in there." While the Terriers ended up with 37 shots, they had just 10 during a scoreless second period in which Sammartino was forced to make 20 saves. The Bombers had chances, but couldn't beat the Goalie of the Month for October. Aside from referee Jay Cook not making friends with fans after they felt he blew several calls, the Terriers' Cody Devitt became public enemy number one when he hit Holinaty from behind. Teammate Mackenzie Groenewegen immediately came to his defence and fought Devitt. When it came to sealing the win, the Bombers had little difficulty. "When it's a one goal game it's very exciting and fun to be out there and I don't think there was that much panic at all," said Holinaty. Stokes was very much relieved his team ended the skid. "I didn't think it was one we stole," Stokes said. "I thought we played well in a lot of areas. I thought we were much more astute as far as giving up odd man attacks and didn't give up the 2-on-1's and the breakaways and the 3-on-2's and I thought we were much better defensively." Stokes was very pleased with the play of Bartel, who earned the first game star. "He just had to be square to the puck and solid and he was very good," Stokes added. "We've got to be a defensive team. This is not an offensive juggernaut and we're going to have to win the 4-3, 3-2, 2-1 games." The Bombers hope to add another victory to this one by defeating the Melfort Mustangs, who are in town tomorrow.
