It was a stiff test for the Flin Flon Bombers this past weekend as they hosted the Weyburn Red Wings in a pair of games at the Whitney Forum.
Weyburn appeared to have the Bombers number the last few seasons and had beat them in 9 of the last 12 meetings including the SJHL Semi Final from this past Spring. Weyburn was able to jump out with a three games to none lead and eventually won the series in six games.
The Wings had also won the two meetings in Weyburn this year including a 3 to 2 win in OT back on January the 28th, which was the Bombers only loss in the entire month of January.
I think it is safe to say this is a different Bomber team, who are enjoying one of their most successful seasons in franchise history and are now an incredible 20-0 at home after two more wins this weekend.
Flin Flon was able to win in the shoot-out 3 to 2 on Friday behind a terrific goaltending display from Charlie Tritt. Tritt stopped 33 out of 35 shots including some huge saves in the third period and Over Time, with the Bombers clearly back on their heels.
Flin Flon also took a penalty in Over Time and went down 4 on 3, but Tritt held his team in it and was able to keep the Wings at bay with a lot of timely saves and excellent rebound control.
Local product Wyatt Stinton led the way offensively with two goals including the winner in the Shoot-Out. Stinton is having a break out season and now has 12 goals, which is a career high. Daniel Morozov had the other Flin Flon goal, when he scored on a juicy rebound in the first period.
Drew Molde and Ryder Rommelaere had the goals for Weyburn. Joey Rocha made his Whitney Forum debut and was rock solid making 27 saves on 29 shots.
We would see two new netminders on Saturday with the Bombers electing to go with Finn Werner who was 10-1 on the season and is coming off a great month of January where he registered three shut-outs.
Weyburn started Nate Stevens who is no slouch either and was 10-4 entering the game on Saturday.
Flin Flon came out flying in the rematch and were rewarded on goals from Connor Miller (20) and Ryder Mucha (16), to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead.
Luke Dekay responded for Weyburn on the powerplay, when he flipped in a loose puck in front of the Bomber net to beat Werner for his 10th of the year and get the Wings on the board.
Flin Flon scored the only goal of the second when Pierce Yakimchuk fired a nice low shot that fooled Stevens late in the frame to give the Bombers a two goal cushion at 3 to 1.
It looked like the Bombers were on their way when Jack Martin(12) and Landon Alexander(11) scored 8 seconds apart to give Flin Flon a commanding 5 to 1 lead early in the third period.
Weyburn didn’t quit and they did manage to score a couple of goals courtesy of Roan Burgess and Callas Pierce to make it 5 to 3.
Pierce Yakimchuk was able to seel it with his second of the night and 7th of the year, when he scored into the empty net to make the final 6 to 3. Flin Flon was able to pick up their first weekend sweep of the Wings in a number of years.
Flin Flon continues to pile up the points and wins and are now a league best 33-9-1-1, 68 points which is 7 up on the second place Battleford Stars and ten points up on the third place Yorkton Terriers and Nipawin Hawks.
Weyburn will fall to 26-14-1-3 and are currently 5th spot, but are just two points behind third place Yorkton and Nipawin.
Head Coach and GM, Mike Reagan talks about the 20 straight home wins. “ It is a great accomplishment, and you can’t go through a whole regular season without goals for your team and setting standards.We would of never guessed we would be in this position right now and it is impressive and I don’t ever remember a Bomber team going this deep without a home loss. I knew we were going to have a good team and you never know your younger players are going to respond their first year in the league. We knew we were going to have to get scoring from 10 to 15 guys with ten or more goals and we have got that.”
Next up for the Bombers will be a trip to Kindersley to battle a Klippers team that is barely hanging on to a playoff spot with 46 points, and are just one point up on the 7th and 8th place Melville Millionaires and Estevan Bruins. Kindersley is also just two points up on the 9th place Humboldt Broncos, so they need to have a good weekend against Flin Flon to stay in the race.
Games will be this Friday and Saturday at the Inter Pipeline Events Centre with puck drop both nights at 7:30.
