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.
Another weekend, and another single point in the SJHL standings for the Flin Flon Bombers. The lone point came in Friday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the La Ronge Ice Wolves. On Saturday, the Bombers worked hard but couldn't get the job done when the game was on the line. La Ronge won Saturday's game 4-2. The Bombers scored early on Friday night, as Tyler Beachell gave the Bombers a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds after the opening face off. Andrew Skrabek and Bob Graham assisted. T.J. Schneider evened the score at the tail end of a power play at 3:28, and Dustin Dubas made it 2-1 for the Wolves with a power-play goal at 5:18. Barrett Brook gave La Ronge a two-goal lead at 18:04 of the opening frame, but a timely goal by Andrew Skrabek on the power play at 19:32 brought the Bombers to within one goal. Beachell and Stewart Sjoberg assisted on the goal. Clayton Geiger had the only goal of the second period, scoring at 14:58 on a power play from Sjoberg and Richard Dupre. Doug Exner restored La Ronge's lead just 1:25 into the third period, but the Bombers got an early Christmas present at 12:59 as a missed off-sides call allowed Beachell to score his second goal of the game. With the score tied at the end of regulation, the game headed into overtime. Patrick Voll picked a good time to score his first goal of the season for the Wolves, beating goaltender Francois Laverdiere at 4:22 of the extra stanza. Laverdiere made 22 saves in the loss, while Alex Gagnon picked up the win with 26 stops. Flin Flon scored twice on six power plays, while La Ronge scored two goals on five chances. The Bombers needed two points on Saturday night, but got stoned by their old teammate, goaltender Michael Pilote. Pilote made 43 saves against his old team to earn the win for La Ronge, and was the story of the game. Dale Pettit made 32 saves in the losing cause. Jeff Marshall opened the scoring at 2:58 for La Ronge, but Andrew Skrabek tied the game before the end of the first period. The goal at 10:44 was assisted by Tyler Beachell and Clete Mastad. Kyle Gladue scored the only goal of the second period, a power-play goal at 6:43. It was a costly period for the Bombers, who had two players ejected from the game. Andrew Skrabek scored his second goal of the game at 3:39 on a power play to tie the game, but despite out shooting the Wolves 23-7 in the third period, La Ronge scored twice to win the game 4-2. Dillon Henningson scored at 3:54, and then Doug Exner added an empty net goal with five seconds remaining on the clock. The Bombers showed a lot of promise on the weekend, but in the end ran into some hot goaltending. Adding insult to injury, the Bombers couldn't beat former teammate Michael Pilote, who wasn't given much of a chance to prove himself in Flin Flon behind starting netminder Francois Laverdiere. The Bombers out shot the Wolves 45-35, but scored only once on seven power plays, while the Ice Wolves had one goal on five chances. The Bombers had three new faces in the line up on the weekend, and all three players looked to be good fits for Flin Flon. Mackenzie Groenewegen, Ron Marcoux and Jordy Black are all high intensity players and will be able to help Flin Flon out offensively in some capacity. Defenceman Nate Wilson did not dress on the weekend, but is still expected to report later this week. Next action for the Bombers will be on Tuesday and Wednesday when they head to Battleford in search of their first road win of the season.
