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.
Coach Ryan Hoffman picked up his first win as coach of the Flin Flon Bombers when they defeated the Ice Wolves 4-1 on Saturday night. The Bombers snapped an 11-game winless skid that dated back to October 3. Hoffman took over from Brad Snyder behind the bench on October 17 after completing his 10-game suspension. Hoffman started with a record of 0-3-2-1 before Saturday's win, and credited his first win to the team's commitment to defence first. "I thought we played pretty well," he said after practice on Monday. "It was a complete effort, and everyone showed up. Our forwards did a good job of thinking 'defence first', and I can probably count on one hand the number of odd-man rushes we gave up on Saturday. Two or three weeks ago we were giving up ten or twelve every game. When we let Paul see the shots, and we can keep them to 27-30 shots against, we're going to win a lot of these 3-1, 4-1, 4-2 games." The Bombers will host the Estevan Bruins this Friday and Saturday. The two teams haven't had so much of a rivalry as an absolute hatred for each other in recent years. With a goal called back in their meeting on October 25 in Estevan, the Bombers were robbed of a victory the last time these teams met. For now, the Bombers will take the rest of the week to prepare themselves for the weekend's games, but it is business as usual. "We're not doing anything special to try and counter Estevan's attack," said Hoffman. "We're going to go about our business as usual, and continue to work on our special teams. They were excellent on Saturday night. We might try and add another wrinkle to that so we have another option. We just want to keep things high-tempo, so we are very sharp on Friday when Estevan comes to town." In other team news, Donald Milburn has left the team, setting the scene for an imminent trade. Milburn walked out on the team Monday morning, and will await a trade from his home in Hudson Bay, SK. Hoffman hopes to have a trade finalized late this week. In 13 games this season, Milburn has accumulated five goals and five assists for ten points and 52 penalty minutes. Last season, Milburn had seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 58 games, and added 347 penalty minutes.
