The first round of the battle of Northern Manitoba go's to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard who picked up the 3 to 2 shootout win last night over the Flin Flon Bombers  at the Roy H Johnston Arena.

 

This was a very entertaining hockey game that was high octave and both teams were flying all night.

 

The Blizzard came out and had the Bombers back on their heels for much of the first period and got rewarded with the first goal.

 

Local product Isaac Tomchak was able to deflect a puck past Kenny Marquart to open the scoring midway through the first.

 

It stayed that way til the second period when veteran Keenan McNeill picked up a puck in the corner and walked right out in front of the Bomber net to beat Kenny Marquart up high over his right shoulder. 

 

This was a powerplay goal that gave the Blizzard the 2-0 lead after two. It looked like that may be enough as Flin Flon had a tough time mounting offense and putting a puck past Alexander Reedy.

 

The Bombers did come out and play a great third period and finally got rewarded when Luke Lepper snuck a shot through traffic in front of the Blizzard net.

 

This gave the Bombers some confidence and second year defenseman Connor Ryan tied the game with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.

 

Ryan took a nice pass from Joey Lies and fired a shot past Reedy who got fooled on the quick release.

 

The rest of regulation and the 5 minute overtime settled nothing, despite the fact the Bombers got a 5 on 3 late in the game which carried them to the extra period.

 

Alexander Reedy stopped everything in his path in ot  and would up with 43 saves on 45 shots and was the best player on the ice.

 

Cheechoo Lathlin,  who is a former Bomber was the only player to score in the shootout when he buried a puck under Kenny Marquart’s left pad.

 

This sent the hometown crowd into a frenzy as they always look forward to the games against Flin Flon.

 

The Blizz remain perfect in the pre-season at 4-0 with the 3 to 2 shootout win, the Bombers will fall to 3-0-0-1.

 

Kenny Marquart played well for Flin Flon and made 24 saves on 26 shots.

 

The difference in this game was special teams with the Bombers going 0 for 6 on the powerplay including two 5 on 3's. The Blizzard went 1 for 4.

 

The battle of Northern Manitoba will now switch venues and make it's way to the Whitney Forum on Friday night for a 7:30 puck drop.

 

Once again you can listen to all the action on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com beginning with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:10.