Seven unanswered goals against.
That was the defining point from Wednesday night's Flin Flon Bomber loss to the Weyburn Red Wings, a 7-2 rout on home ice.
Flin Flon struck early with two quick goals from Rob Johnson and Nate Hooper, but two goals eight seconds apart by Weyburn's Wyatt Arndt and Jeremy Velazquez - both top corner on goalie Niklas Anderson - crushed Flin Flon's momentum.
The second period was the Erik Olson show, with the Weyburn forward scoring a natural hat-trick for his team and extending the Red Wing lead to 5-2. Bomber starter Anderson was pulled after Olson's third goal, yielding the crease to Reese Jones. In the four games since Bomber top goalie Brenden Newton was sidelined due to injury, the Bombers have switched goalies mid-game three times.
Red Wing Tyran Brown picked up where Olson left off in the third, scoring two goals on Jones in the third period to further run up the score.
Weyburn goalie Arik Weersink made 40 stops in the win, while Anderson made 20 saves on 25 shots and Jones added eight saves.
It's been a rough few weeks for the Bombers, who now sit in third-last in the league and third in the Sherwood Division with 20 points. Four Bomber regulars - Newton, Jordan McCausland, Ben Lanfermann and Tyler Nyman - sat out Wednesday's game with injuries.
One recently-acquired player, defenseman Alex Lindstrom, was also not in the lineup. Lindstrom was acquired by the Bombers on Nov. 28 in deal with the AJHL's Grande Prairie Storm. 20-year-old defenseman Kurtis Rutledge - who had spent the past month away from the team awaiting a trade - headed the other way.
The high number of goals against is becoming common for Flin Flon, who have averaged more than 4.5 goals against per game in November.
The Bombers will hope to flip the script with a home-and-home series with Nipawin, with games in Flin Flon on Dec. 2 and in Nipawin on Dec. 5. Two more home games against Humboldt follow on Dec. 8 and 9.
