The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon Bombers are back in action tonight, as the Nipawin Hawks make their first trip to the Whitney Forum. After a huge 3-0 win over the Estevan Bruins on Saturday, the Hawks will be looking to improve on their 2-4-2 record, which has them in fourth place in the SJHL's Dodge Conference. The Bombers are currently in third place, two points ahead of the Hawks, and have two games in hand. "I thought that we played okay, and that was about it," said coach Ryan Hoffman about his team's efforts against Melfort on the weekend. "We didn't play as hard and consistently as we did against Humboldt. We have to get back to paying the price for 60 minutes. We probably should have came out with two points against Melfort on Saturday." The Bombers finished the game on Saturday with a short bench. Stewart Sjoberg injured his knee Ð nothing major, but he will likely be out of the lineup until the Bombers return from their road trip next week. Simon McCusker has a muscle strain, and is questionable for tonight's game against Nipawin. Jeff Lapointe also missed the conclusion of the game on Saturday, after reopening a cut on his left eye during a fight. The Hawks, much like the Melfort Mustangs, are a better team than their record might indicate, and have plenty of offensive weapons that are just waiting to explode this season. Alex Cote, Kevin Lavallee and Jaydyn Murray can all put the puck in the net. The Bombers will have to key in on them in order to keep the score down. The Bombers have scored a decent number of goals this season with 25, which is six more than the Hawks in two less games played. Defensively, the team as a whole has struggled a little bit, but held the Mustangs to two goals in each of the two games this past weekend. The Bombers have allowed 22 goals this season, but the real story has been their penalty killing. Flin Flon has allowed 11 of those goals on the power play. The Bomber penalty kill is operating at just 75.6%, the worst in the league. Nipawin's penalty kill has been impressive, as they are third in the SJHL at 85.7%. On the flip side, Flin Flon's power play is second in the league at 23.7%, a stat that coach Hoffman thinks his team can even improve on. "I thought our power play struggled at times against Melfort," he said. "When we try to make things complicated in any aspect of the game, we get in trouble. We have to keep things very simple, and on our power play, we were trying to be a little too fancy. We weren't shooting the puck as much. We spent some time on Monday just getting the puck to the net." Nipawin's power play has been less than effective at 9.1%. After tonight's game, the Bombers will have some tim to prepare for their first overnight road trip of the season. The team will have three days to prepare, before hitting the road for a three-game swing. They will be in Yorkton for an afternoon game on Sunday. On Monday, the Bombers will take on the Melville Millionaires, who currently occupy top spot in the Sherwood Conference. On Tuesday, the trip will conclude with a game in Nipawin. "It will be a good test for us," said Hoffman. "Although their record doesn't show it, Yorkton, along with Melville are two of the top teams in the south. They've got some big-time offensive threats. It will be a good test for our goaltenders and our team defence to see how we compare to them."
