The Flin Flon Bombers and Notre Dame Hounds are now playing a best-of-three playoff series after splitting the opening four games.
On Tuesday night in Flin Flon, Notre Dame was able to hang on for a 3-2 win, but the Bombers bounced back on Wednesday to hand the Hounds a 4-1 defeat.
“I thought we played a really good game Tuesday night,” said head coach Mike Reagan. “Unfortunately we had a couple tough goals go in on us and we just didn’t have enough time. We hit five goal posts and missed four or five quality opportunities in the slot and we weren’t able to capitalize. Their goaltender outplayed our goaltenders, and at the end of the day that usually results in a victory for the opposition.”
The Bombers outshot the Hounds 41-35 on Tuesday, including 13-7 in the final period, but couldn't get the tying goal by goaltender Alexi Thibaudeau.
Notre Dame scored twice on three power play opportunities, both coming from Jared Martin. Their third goal from Austin Lightfoot chased starter Simon Hofley from the net early in the second period.
Adam Beukeboom was perfect in relief, but that wasn’t enough. Joel Kocur and Austin Evans had the goals for the Bombers.
35 saves
Beukeboom got the start for Flin Flon on Wednesday, making 35 saves en route to a 4-1 win.
Thibaudeau was once again busy in the Notre Dame net, allowing four goals on 43 shots.
The Bombers opened the scoring with a Chris Rauckman goal early in the third period, and held on to that one-goal lead until they broke the game open in the third period.
Parker Evans-Campbell, Brandon Switzer and Austin Evans scored for the Bombers in the third, while Jared Martin notched his sixth of the playoffs in response for the Hounds.
“Wednesday we were able to capitalize on our opportunities,” said Reagan. “We were a little more aggressive, and that seemed to disrupt their flow a little bit. It was big, obviously, winning here to take this series back to Notre Dame tied. We know that we’re going to get a Game 6 back here in Flin Flon on Sunday. We knew this was going to be a tight series. Hopefully we can take advantage of winning in Notre Dame.”
The Bombers have had some success against the Hounds on the road this year. They were the first team to hand Notre Dame a home loss, and split the opening two games of this series by winning Game 2 in overtime.
The Hounds have the advantage of playing all of their home games on the largest ice surface in the league. Playing on an Olympic-sized rink, it can sometimes be hard for the visiting team to adjust.
“It’s just an adjustment that you have to make,” said Reagan. “The guys have to realize that although it seems like you have more time, you don’t have as much time as you think. We’ve been fairly good on the road this year, and we’ve won two games there this year. We are confident that we can go in there and steal a game again.”
Game 5 goes tonight in Wilcox. Game 6 will be Sunday evening at the Whitney Forum.
