The Flin Flon Bombers were winners on and off the ice last Friday, Feb. 6, as they treated a vast Hudbay-sponsored crowd to a well-earned win.
Over 1,500 people took advantage of free admission courtesy of Hudbay as the Bombers downed the Melfort Mustangs 5-2.
Chris Rauckman scored twice and added an assist to lead the offence, and Simon Hofley made 38 saves to earn his 17th win of the season.
Rauckman's goals gave him 35 on the season, making him the first SJHL player to hit that plateau this campaign. He was ahead of Melfort's Travis Mayan by two goals for the league lead.
Also scoring for Flin Flon were Austin Calladine, Alex Smith and Dean Allison. Allison also had a pair of assists for three points on the night.
Brett Boehm added two helpers of his own. He now has 23 points in just 14 games with the
Bombers this season.
Overshadowing the win was a second period line brawl, where all 10 skaters on the ice were involved in a fight that resulted in the lot of them being ejected.
A total of 231 penalty minutes were handed out, including 13 major penalties and the same number of game misconducts. Suspensions will likely be handed out this week but were not announced as of press time.
‘Nervous’
“I thought we were nervous in the first period,” said head coach Mike Reagan. “We got a few bounces when we needed and in the third it was nervous having to kill a five-minute penalty, but we did what we had to do to win.”
The Bombers are tops in the SJHL when it comes to penalty minutes. They earned 123 of them in Friday's game, and now have 1,348 on the season.
That's just over 200 more than the Yorkton Terriers, who are second in that category but are dead last in the SJHL when it comes to the overall point standings.
The win temporarily moved Flin Flon ahead of the Nipawin Hawks for fourth place, but after the weekend's action there was a three-way tie for fourth between the Bombers, Hawks and Notre Dame Hounds. Each team has 64 points, although the Bombers and Hounds have nine games remaining on the regular season schedule while the Hawks only have seven.
The Hawks and Bombers will play each other three more times, including the final game of the regular season schedule.
Tonight the Bombers are in La Ronge to take on the Ice Wolves.
Flin Flon will host the Hawks on Friday and then travel to Nipawin for a road game rematch on Saturday.
