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.
After two games of the 2003-04 regular season, the Flin Flon Bombers are undefeated. They started the new campaign with two ties against the La Ronge Ice Wolves in a home-and-home series. Friday night the teams tied 4-4 in La Ronge, and on Saturday in Flin Flon they skated to a 5-5 draw. Anytime you can pick up a point on the road you have to be happy about your effort, especially when the home team is handed 11 power-plays to work with, but the Bombers may be thinking a little bit harder about Saturday's game at the Whitney Forum, after blowing a 5-3 lead. The Bombers knew it was going to be a long night on Friday, as they were penalized just 17 seconds into the contest. Goaltender Paul Reimer was faced with a barrage of shots in the first five minutes of the game, but kept the puck out, and the Bombers scored first. Kyle Schroder scored the first goal of the season at 3:45, with Tyler Stinton and Quinn McIntosh assisting. At the five-minute mark of the first, Kirby Markowsky ran over Reimer, giving the Bombers their first power-play of the game. They were unable to score, and the momentum shifted in the Ice Wolves' favour, as Donovan Hall scored at 8:50. Kenny Brown and TJ Schneider assisted. Joey Moggach put on a one-man-show for Flin Flon, putting the Bombers ahead 2-1 at 10:12. Paul Reimer sent Moggach the puck, and the feisty forward twisted through the La Ronge defence and beat goaltender Kraig Kuczynski. Shots in the first period were 21-10 in favour of the home team. Craig Macfie tied the game for La Ronge with a goal 55 seconds into the period with a screen shot from the point. Kyle Patterson and Kenny Brown picked up the assists. Dillon Henningson gave the Ice Wolves their first lead of the game with a power-play goal at 3:29, with Doug Exner and Shane Smith assisting. Near the midway mark of the period, La Ronge crashed the Bomber net for the second time in the game, and tempers flared, as Mark Black and Kevin Burwell took care of business by defending their goaltender. This sparked the Bombers, and Stewart Sjoberg scored at 13:55 from Tyler Stinton and Paul Reimer to tie the game for Flin Flon. With five seconds remaining in the period, Shane Smith high-sticked Derek Blais behind the play, and Andrew Skrabek came to his defence and taught Smith that liberties on the Flin Flon Bombers will not be tolerated this season. Mark Black scored for the Bombers on a rare power-play opportunity in the third period. He redirected Simon McCusker's shot from the point to give the Bombers a 4-3 lead at 7:10. Last year's rookie of the year Jeff Marshall evened the scored at 12:07 with a power-play goal assisted by Doug Exner and Donovan Hall. Nothing was decided in the remaining eight minutes of regulation, nor the five minutes of overtime. La Ronge scored two power-play goals on ten chances, while the Bombers were held to one goal on four chances. See 'Two' P.# Con't from P.# La Ronge out shot the Bombers 55-44 in front of 909 fans. Nearly 1,500 Flin Flon faithful came out to the Whitney Forum on Saturday night for the Bombers' home-opener. A penalty-filled first period saw the Ice Wolves start the game with a power-play just 27 seconds in. No goals were scored until 19:50, when Doug Exner's shot beat Brett Koscielny on a power play, with Patrick Voll assisting. Kenny Brown put the Wolves ahead 2-0 35 seconds into the second period from Kyle Gladue. Craig Parks netted his first goal of the season for the Bombers at 5:36 with Tyler Stinton and Derek Blais assisting, and Ryan Boak tied the game at 6:46 with Mark Black and Kevin Burwell getting the helpers. TJ Schneider put La Ronge ahead 3-2 with a power-play goal from Kyle Gladue at 0:58 of the third period, but the Bombers would score three unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead. Derek Blais scored from Stewart Sjoberg at 2:16 to tie the game, and a power-play marker from Simon McCusker, his first goal as a Flin Flon Bomber, was assisted by Derek Blais and John Iron at 3:56. This chased goaltender Kraig Kuczynski from the net, and he was replaced by Mike Carozza. Kyle Schroder bested Carozza at 7:04 with an unassisted shorthanded goal to give Flin Flon a 5-3 lead. Unfortunately, the Bombers could not hold on. Jeff Marshall scored at 9:45 with assists going to Gladue and Smith, and Gladue scored his first of the season at 16:14 from Hall and Brown. The Bombers out shot the Ice Wolves 42-38, including 3-0 in overtime, but for the second night in a row, nothing was decided. The Ice Wolves were 2/10 on the power-play, while the Bombers scored one goal on nine chances. After opening the season with two ties, the Bombers will be eager to go after their first win this weekend when the Humboldt Broncos roll into town. They will play two games, Friday and Saturday at the Whitney Forum.
