The Bombers extended their winning streak to seven games Tuesday, beating Melville 3-2 to start a southern road swing.
Flin Flon opened the scoring very quickly, doing so within the first two minutes. Jacob Vockler cut through the Mils defence like a hot knife through butter, beating Ethan Rau in the Melville net and scoring the game's first goal.
The Bombers almost got a second goal midway through the first, when Riley Niven shovelled home a rebound past Rau, but the goal was immediately waved off - Liam Bridger had bumped into Rau shortly before the goal, doing enough to get a goalie interference penalty and killing the goal. To make matters worse for Flin Flon, Melville's Joel Mabin tipped in a point shot on the ensuing powerplay, tying the game a minute later. In the space of 60 seconds of game time, the Bombers had a two goal swing, going from being up 2-0 to tied at one all.
Flin Flon would not go into the intermission down, thanks to Alexi Sylvestre, who picked up a one-time from Vockler and hammered it past Rau. The Bombers were up 2-1 after 20.
In the second period, all hell broke loose with penalties. The ref's whistle blew eight times to send a player to the box, with the calls evenly split between the two teams. The biggest penalty went to Riley Niven, who took a 10-minute misconduct and was ejected from the game after being initially called for slashing and protesting the call with the officials.
Despite the hubbub, the Bombers extended the lead late in the second. With a Mils player in the box, Carter Anderson got a shot through traffic to score his 32nd of the season, making it 3-1 after two periods of play.
The third buzzed by quickly, with few penalties until late. The Bombers had a late powerplay, but that was scuppered when Anderson turned the puck over and allowed a Melville breakaway, then played the man over the puck, raising one penalty, then drove him into the boards, getting him another one and a game misconduct to boot. A rare mistake by the Thompson-born forward had repercussions for the Bombers.
Melville took full advantage of the powerplay late, with Payton Kostyshyn beating Harmon Laser-Hume with a quick wrist shot, bringing the Mils within one. The Mils pulled Rau to give themselves a 6-on-4 late to try and tie the game, putting the Bombers on their heels late, but Flin Flon staved off a late attack to earn their seventh straight win.
Laser-Hume made 24 saves on the night, while Rau made 25 saves for Melville.
The Bombers will be back in action Wednesday night, heading to Wilcox to face the Notre Dame Hounds.
Flin Flon now has won 36 of 40 games they've played this season, sporting a 36-2-2-0 record and having earned 74 of 80 points. The Bombers are still tops in the SJHL standings. Second-place Battlefords ate a tough loss to Yorkton Tuesday and now have 66 points in 44 games, four more games played than the Bombers and eight points back.
