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 will be looking to steal four points this weekend, when the Kindersley Klippers come to town. Kindersley and Flin Flon met four times in the month of December, each team winning two games, one in each rink. This time, the Bombers will be setting their expectations a little higher, as they look for a sweep against the Dodge Conference leaders. This will be Flin Flon's first games since the January 10 trade deadline, where they added forwards Joe Gori and Jimo King to their lineup, as well as defenceman Julian Matte and goaltender Francois Laverdrere, who made their debuts with the Bombers last weekend. Gori, who had over 40 points in the MJHL with the Dauphin Kings, was line mates with Anatoliy Moshkovsky until the Bombers acquired him at the December 1 deadline. "He's a guy we tried to get at the same time as Anatoliy," said coach Ryan Hoffman. "He should help the offense up front. He's another creative guy that we hope will be able to play well with Joey Moggach." In order to pry Gori away from the Kings, the Bombers had to give up play making forward Tyler Stinton. "That was a pretty tough thing to do," said Hoffman. "Tyler played pretty well for us. Tyler is a setup guy, where as Joe is more of a scorer, and if there is anything we needed to add, it was someone who could put it in the net. Giving up Tyler is probably the toughest thing I've had to do since I've been here." Stinton joins a good young team in Dauphin, who made some key acquisitions at the deadline to be a contender in the MJHL next season. The move also creates some room on the Bomber's roster for next year, as Stinton would have been one of eight 20 year-olds on the team for the 2004-05 season. Under league rules, each team is only allowed to carry nine over-agers. The final piece of the puzzle, Jimo King, brought the Bomber roster up to 22 players, leaving them with one extra defenceman and one extra forward. "Jimo is a real honest, hardworking winger with junior experience," said Hoffman. He will a character guy for us that we will be able to spot in on the third and fourth line without missing a beat." With guys like Burwell, Blais and Fransoo always in suspension trouble, having an extra forward is key for the Bombers as they make their playoff drive. Last weekend, the Bombers got themselves in a huge hole on Friday night, but battled back hard to salvage a 5-5 tie with the Notre Dame Hounds. On Saturday, Flin Flon played a solid game defensively, but struggled to put the puck in the net. "Offensively, I didn't think we had the hunger to get to some of the loose pucks," said Hoffman. "That, and we were a little shorthanded, losing Derek Blais right off the bat, and we lost John Iron, and Derek Gallagher didn't dress. We were down to four forwards on the bench at one time. We ran out of gas at the end when we did have some chances." The two newest Bombers on the ice last weekend turned some heads. Laverdrere allowed only two goals in his first start on Saturday, a screened shot and a one-timer from the top of the crease. "You can't fault him for either goal," said Hoffman. "He said he was a little nervous, and maybe fought his rebounds a little bit, but he is very quick, very athletic, and very technically sound." Matte showed himself to be a skilled defenceman who moves the puck and skates very well. "He's not the biggest and strongest guy in the world, but he's so quick in our own end, he doesn't give the opposition any time at all," said Hoffman. Currently, the Bombers are four points behind Estevan with three games in hand for the final playoff spot in the Sherwood Conference, and four points behind Nipawin for the final spot in the Dodge Conference, with equal games played. The Hawks have a tough weekend ahead of them, with a home-and-home against Humboldt. Coach Ryan Hoffman shouldn't have to work too hard to get his team fired up for the games against Kindersley this weekend - his team is well aware that they need to start winning games or face another year of watching the playoffs from the outside. Game time from the Whitney Forum on Friday and Saturday is 7:30 p.m.
