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.
If the Flin Flon Bombers miss the playoffs for a third straight year, you can be sure that the team will look back on last night's 3-2 loss to the Nipawin Hawks and think about the one that got away. Bad penalties and a bad power play were just a couple of the things that went wrong for the Bombers, who now trail the Nipawin Hawks by seven points for the final playoff spot in the Dodge Conference. Nipawin got on the board with a goal scored by T.J. Sutter at 11:50 on a bad angle shot. Things went from bad to worse for the Bombers, as a turn over at the Nipawin blue line gave Jaydyn Murray a shorthanded breakaway. The Bomber defenceman got caught waiting for the puck to come to him, and Murray scored to make it 2-0 at 14:56. With the Bombers on the power play, and a delayed penalty on the way, Clayton Geiger scored his second of the year for Flin Flon at 15:34 to put the Bombers on the board, assisted by Stewart Sjoberg and Derek Blais. The referee initially waved off the goal, as he did not see the puck cross the line. After a conference with the goal judge and the two linesmen, he finally made the correct call and awarded the Bombers with their first goal. The momentum changed in favour of the Bombers, and Flin Flon had some good chances in the final minutes of the first period. However, all momentum was killed when the Bombers found themselves down by two men for a full two minutes, for the second game in a row. The two-minute slashing call to Simon McCusker may have been questionable, but Joey Moggach took an undisciplined cross checking penalty to put the Bombers down by two men. Still on the power play to start the second period, Ryan Haggarty scored for the Hawks at 1:15 on the two-man advantage. To make matters worse for the Bombers, Stewart Sjoberg was ejected for boarding at 1:52, and assessed a five-minute major penalty. The Bombers killed off the major penalty, but the momentum had definitely shifted in the Hawks' favour. Flin Flon applied pressure near the end of the third period, and Jeff LaPointe potted his 13th goal of the year at 17:01, assisted by Anatoliy Moshkovsky and Joey Moggach, giving the Bombers new life for the final three minutes of regulation. With the Hawks pinned deep in their own zone, the Bombers pulled their goaltender in favour of the extra attacker, but in the final minute of play, they could not win a face off in Nipawin territory on five tries. Michael Clements made 33 saves to earn the important win for the Hawks, while Francois Laverdrere made 30 saves in the losing cause for the Bombers. Flin Flon scored one power-play goal on eight chances, while the Hawks scored once on seven tries, which included a five-minute advantage and a five-on-three. The Bombers will be in Battleford this weekend to take on the North Stars, Friday and Saturday, and will conclude a three game road swing with a game against the Broncos in Humboldt on Sunday. Shrapnel Down by two goals heading into the third period, the Bombers should have been playing desperate hockey. A win would have left the Bombers only three points behind the Hawks, but a loss almost eliminates them from playoff contention. With 16 games left in the season and seven points out of the race, the Bombers will have to play every game as if they are down three games to none in a best-of-seven series, and hope that Nipawin and La Ronge start to struggle. A bad power-play and bad penalties have cost the Bombers three of their last four games. Case in point last night Ð Derek Blais' penalty for shooting the puck at the goaltender after the whistle did not help his team at 3:47 of the third period, and the Bombers had a power-play with 7:45 remaining in the game, and failed to register a single shot on net, giving the Hawks two scoring chances in the process. To end on a positive note, Jeff LaPointe and Derek Gallagher, Flin Flon's all-star defencemen, both had good games on the blue line (LaPointe's two-minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first period not included). Francois Laverdrere continues to keep the goals-against down, giving the Bombers a chance to win every night.
