Chase and Easton Haygarth chose an appropriate night to have their best game of the season. The twin brothers combined for six points, and the Flin Flon Bombers celebrated family night with a 5-1 win over the Melville Millionaires on Oct. 19.
With six players kicked out for fighting the night before, the question on everyone's minds at the Whitney Forum was if the players from the Millionaires and Bombers had gotten hostilities out of their system.
That was answered five seconds into the game, when Matt Raymond and Brandon Larochelle dropped the gloves and started throwing punches. The tilt set the tone for a physical and penalty filled night. Referees Derek Flad and Luke McGeough called over 15 minor penalties throughout the game, in a successful attempt to keep tempers low.
With that taken care of, the Bombers immediately got to work on offense, scoring twice on their first four shots, including a powerplay marker from Alec Malo, and a nice breakaway deke from Easton Haygarth. They carried that 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Bombers would continue to dominate the scoreboard in the second period. Mason Kaspick finished off a beautiful passing play for his first goal of the season. Chase and Easton Haygarth both got helpers, as Kaspick did a good job to elevate a backhand over Melville's starting goalie Kaleb McEarchern.
Easton Haygarth made it 4-0, with the only assist going to his brother. In tight all alone, Easton made no mistake, beating McEarchern with a low wrister on his blocker side.
With exactly one minute left in the frame, Adam Victorino got in on the scoring, notching his first of the season as well. The defenseman jumped up into a three on two rush, and one-timed the puck into the net to give Flin Flon a 5-0 second intermission lead.
Matt Sankner's shutout bid was broken early in the third period. With Victorino in the penalty box for boarding, Aiden Steinke got Melville on the board. Stinkie picked up a rebound right in front of the crease, and slipped it into the open half of the net to deny the Bombers their first shutout of the season.
It was six periods of domination from the Bombers over the two game series. After outshooting Melville by 26 on Oct. 18, they followed it up by outshooting the Millionaires by 38 on Oct. 19. Flin Flon outshot Melville 97-33 over the weekend.
The Bombers will travel to Humboldt and Kindersley next weekend for three away games, before returning to the Whitney Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 29 to face Melfort.
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The Bombers still may finally be making up ground in the highly competitive Sherwood division, as their 9-3-2 record has them temporarily in possession of second place, and a single point behind division leading Melfort, depending on further weekend results. Melville's 4-7-2-2 record was good enough to lead the Viterra division.
Flin Flon has turned the Whitney Forum into a difficult place for opposing teams to play. They've only lost once so far this season in the friendly confines.
Matt Flodell, Tristan Lemyre, Ryan Moon and Jack Michell missed the two game set with Melville with injuries. Flodell should be back later this week, Michell is aiming for a return after a week, Lemyre is skating and hoping to return in a couple weeks, and the newly acquired Moon is out long-term.
Flodell, although unable to play this weekend, was named an assistant captain by Head Coach Mike Reagan this weekend.
Flin Flon player parents, both of the legal and billet variety, were honoured in a ceremony before the game.
