A tough go for the Flin Flon Bombers who were on the wrong end of a 6 to 1 score against the Melfort Mustangs to open up the weekend Friday night at the Whitney Forum.
Melfort opened up the scoring with a powerplay goal by Dru Mushumanski midway through the opening period and the Mustangs never looked back.
The Mustangs broke the game open with a pair of goals in the last ten seconds of the period which really put the Bombers back on their heels.
Matthew Bertolin scored from his off wing with just ten seconds left in the opening period and it looked like they would take a 2 to 0 lead into the middle frame.
However on the next faceoff, the Mustangs raced down the ice and Luke Dekay was left alone in front of the Bomber net and he scored with just two seconds left on the clock, to absolutely stun everyone in attendance at the Whitney Forum.
I don’t know if I have ever seen a team score two goals in the final ten seconds of a period like that.
Flin Flon left the ice in disbelief and everyone was wondering how the Bombers would respond for the next two periods.
This was the Mustangs night and they kept the pedal to the medal and scored three more times in the second courtesy of Tristan Ziola, Kelan Simmonds and Matthew Bertolin with his second of the night.
It was Bertolin’s second goal which chased Bomber netminder Finn Werner from the game who finished with 11 saves on 16 shots.
We got to see rookie goalie Noah Martin for just the second time this season and he played well in relief making 12 saves on 13 shots. I thought Martin came in and looked poised and confident and played well in a difficult situation.
Flin Flon would finally get a puck past Mustang goalie Luke McKechnie who stopped 24 of 25.
Bomber defenseman Beck Bethard broke the shutout bid with a powerplay goal with just over a minute remaining in the game. This was Bethard’s first ever SJHL goal and it was a nice release from the top of the slot to allow the Bombers to win the third period and make it a little more respectable at 6 to 1.
It is always tough to lose especially at home, but the Bombers have nothing to hang their heads about and almost went two calendar years without losing a home game in regulation.
You have to go back to October the 25th of 2024 which was the last time the Bombers lost a game at home in regulation. Very impressive indeed.
The Bombers wouldn’t have a lot of time to stew about the loss as they were back on the ice the next night against the Yorkton Terriers in a rematch from the Canterra Seeds Cup Championship from this past Spring.
This was an interesting game as the Terriers were thumped 8 to 1 in Nipawin the night before.
I think everybody thought that both these teams would be much better on Saturday night after being embarrassed the night before.
After a scoreless first period the Bombers caught a break early in the second when Defenseman Braydon Bruce was able to fire a shot off Yorkton Goalie Callum Craig’s back just two minutes into the second period. Bruce was behind the Yorkton net and he flipped the puck off over the net , which ended up hitting Craig and finding it's way in.
Flin Flon got some confidence and found the back of the net two more times with Nathan Lalumiere and Ty Wasyluk both scoring their second of the season, to put the Bombers up 3 to 0 after two.
Yorkton never quit and they were able to come out in the final period and scored a couple of powerplay goals from Peter Godley and Tyson Medernach to make it interesting at 3 to 2.
Flin Flon weathered the storm and were able to get an insurance goal when new comer Gabriel Kaminski scored in a mad scramble in front of the Terriers net to make the final 4 to 2.
Kaminski was acquired from Humboldt just a few days ago and Head Coach and GM Cole McCaig has been very impressed with his play.
Finn Werner was back between the pipes for the Bombers and he was steller with 27 saves on 29 shots and was able to shut the door on Yorkton late in the game including a big 6 on 4 advantage.
Callum Craig started for Yorkton and he ended up with 27 saves on 31 shots. The Terriers were able to go 2 for 7 on the powerplay while the Bombers ended up 0 for 3.
Head Coach and GM of the Bombers Cole McCaig was happy with how his team was able to bounce back against the Terriers on Saturday. “Absolutely, we were a little snake bitten the night before against Melfort as we couldn’t convert on our chances. Tonight we stayed with the process and continued to by into the game plan and we wanted to get more pucks on net tonight. We knew there would be a lot of loose change around the net and we scored on a few on mad scrambles and found some loose pucks. I told the guys if you go to the net tonight, you will get rewarded and they did.”
After the weekend the Bombers will improve to 7-3 which is good enough for First Place in the UPL Division and third overall. Flin Flon will get another shot at the Mustangs at the Palace on Tuesday night before hosting the much improved Kindersley Klippers in a pair of games this weekend.
