An intense rivalry was renewed Tuesday at the Whitney Forum, where the Flin Flon Bombers doubled up on the visiting La Ronge Ice Wolves 6-3.
Six different Bombers scored to help the team earn its sixth consecutive win.
Flin Flon got plenty of production out of their top guns. Brett Boehm continued to contribute, chipping in with four assists. He now has eight points in four games.
Chris Rauckman had a goal and two assists, while Michael Knaub, Parker Evans-Campbell, Dean Allison and Brandon Switzer each had a goal and an assist. Tyler Bell was the other goal scorer for the Bombers, and newcomer Brett Kitt had a pair of assists in his maroon and white debut.
“I was happy with the effort,” said head coach Mike Reagan. “I thought in the first period we were a little bit slow, and played down to their level. As the game went on, we started to play better.”
The teams entered the second period tied 1-1. They exchanged goals again early in the second before Allison put the Bombers ahead 3-2 late in the frame.
Rode power play
In the third period, the Bombers rode their red-hot power play to the victory.
“The second period was tough because there was a lot of penalties, and there were some guys that didn’t get a lot of ice time,” said Reagan. “Our power play was three for seven, which is big for us. We had a five-on-three and a four-on-three. If Rauckman hits the net, we probably could have had three more power play goals. The looks we were getting were real good, and that’s all that you can ask for, as long as you are getting good opportunities out of it. A few of them went in, but I thought we could have had a few more.”
Flin Flon led 5-3 by the midpoint of the third period. Just seconds after Rauckman scored the fifth goal, La Ronge’s Cole Porter challenged Austin Evans to a fight at centre ice.
“That was a great tilt,” said Reagan. “They both went at it pretty hard. I think Austin at the end got the better of him, and that set the tone. All of a sudden the intensity picked up.”
Soon after, Tyson Empey dropped the gloves with Tristen Elder. There was no question Empey was the winner of that fight, bringing much of the crowd to their feet.
The Bombers outshot the Ice Wolves 53-36, and Simon Hofley backstopped Flin Flon to their 21st win of the season. Flin Flon’s record is now 21-7-5-4, good enough for 51 points and second place in the Sherwood Division.
Heading into Kindersley tonight, the Bombers will be in tough against a Klippers team that hasn’t lost in regulation in their last seven games. In fact, the Klippers have only lost one regulation game at home so far this season.
“We’ve talked about the Kindersley road trip for about a week and a half here, and the guys are really fired up about that,” said Reagan. “I think we played Kindersley very well here in Flin Flon. We outscored them 8-1 up until the third period of last game. We like the way we match up against them. It’s going to be exciting.”
The Bombers and Klippers will play twice this weekend. Next home action for the Bombers will be Jan. 23 and 24 when the Yorkton Terriers visit for a pair of games.
