Flin Flon Bombers Return Home with 7 out of a possible 8 points.
What a road trip for the Flin Flon Bombers who looked impressive in Melville on Saturday, blanking the home town Mills 3 to 0 to take 7 out of a possible 8 points in the four games.
Reid Arberry (19), Keaton Lesperance (5) and Wyatt Stinton (11) scored the goals while Bomber netminder Charlie Tritt stopped all 31 shots fired in his direction for his fourth shutout of the season and first as a Bomber. The other three came as a member of the Humboldt Broncos.
It was back to back shutouts for Flin Flon , who knocked off Estevan 7 to 0 the night before with home town product Ryder Mucha leading the way with three points including his 14th and 15th goals of the season.
Finn Werner stopped 30 shots and he improves to 10-1 on the season with a staggering GAA of 1.73 and Save % of .931 to go along with three shutouts.
The road trip began on Tuesday with a 7 to 4 win against division rival Nipawin 7 to 4. Joey Lies had the hat-trick, his second of the year which helped the Bombers grab some early momentum, and get the trip started on the right foot.
The only blemish was a 3 to 2 OT loss in Weyburn on Wednesday. This was one of the best played and by far the best pace of any game in the SJHL this season.
These two teams brought it for what many people think may be a preview of the league final this year. Joey Lies found the back of the net for his 22nd of the year, but unfortunately left the game with an upper body injury shortly after and didn’t suit up again for the rest of the trip. Head Coach and GM for the Bombers Mike Reagan didn’t rule out Lies returning to the lineup this weekend.
Reid Arberry scored the other goal and he had a great road trip collecting 7 points in the four games including two goals.
The Bombers end up going 3-0-1 on the road trip and now lead the overall standings at 31-9-1-1, good for 64 points which is now 9 points up on the second place Weyburn Red Wings and Battleford Stars.
The Bomber powerplay was absolutely lethal and ended up going 9 for 21 in the four games and they also managed to score a couple of short handed goals.
Head Coach and GM, Mike Reagan was very happy with how the road trip went last week. “ We are extremely proud of the guys and how we played. I think out of the four games that we played, we were really good in about three and a half of them. I didn’t like our second period in Weyburn, but I thought we played a decent first and a decent third. Then when you get to overtime and anything can happen. Especially the fourth game in Melville we were really banged up and lost some key players, but the guys grinded it out and got the job done. It was also huge for both our goaltenders to get a shutout on the road trip as well.”
The Bombers will return home to face the Weyburn Red Wings at the Whitney Forum this weekend. Weyburn is the only team to have a winning record against the Bombers the last two seasons and have now beaten Flin Flon in 9 of the last 12 meetings and eliminated them in 6 games in last year’s SJHL Semi Final.
If Weyburn wants to catch Flin Flon for first overall they may have to sweep them this weekend. This will be a good test for the Bombers who will be putting their perfect 18-0 home record on the line. Hopefully the building is packed for what should be the two best games of the year. Games are set for Friday and Saturday with puck drop both nights at 7:30pm.
A big congratulations are in order for long time Head Coach and GM, Mike Reagan on once again surpassing 1000 games behind the Bomber bench.
Only the legendary Dwight McMillan who coached Weyburn for almost four decades, has coached more games in the history of the SJHL.
The league will recognize this achievement in the next few weeks.
