It was a very special night at the Whitney Forum for lots of reasons this past Saturday.
The Bombers paid special tribute to former goaltending great Ray "Marty " Martyniuk who played for the Bombers during the glory days of the late 60's. Ray is considered to be the greatest goaltender's in the history of this illustrious organization. Ray passed away in Panama in the fall of 2013.
Ray led the league in goals against every year in junior and had a very successful minor pro career until he retired in 1979. Ray was also one of the highest drafted goaltenders, when he was chosen 5th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 1970. Scotty Bowman said Ray was one of the best goaltending prospects he had seen in 20 years.
It was great to see Ray's family in attendance for this historic occasion on Saturday night including his mother Minnie, daughter Jody Kontzie, sister's Brenda Fehr, Annette Petrash and twin brothers Kevin and Kelvin.
A wall mural was unveiled on the south end featuring Ray's no.21, which will have it's rightful place in the Whitney Forum.
The Bombers then came came out with an inspired attack and took it to the Mills right off the hop outshooting them 27-7 in the first period.
New Bomber goaltender Adam Beukeboom stopped all 21 shots in his direction to pick up a shut out in his Bomber debut.
Alex Smith continued his hot streak picking up his second hat-trick of the season and now has 12 goals on the season. Chris Rauckman added 2 more goals and continues to lead the league with 18. Austin Evans and Brandon Switzer also scored. This is the second for Switzer in as many games since coming over from Whitecourt last week.
Joel Kocur made his Bomber debut and picked up 3 assists. Final shots were: 58 to 21 in the Bombers favour who improve to : 5-0-1 against the Viterra Division.
Flin Flon improves to : 11-3-3-3 overall and remain second in the Sherwood Division, 2 points behind front running Melfort with a game in hand.
The Bombers will get a stiff test Wednesday when the first place overall Kindersley Klippers come to town with a record of: 17-3-1-2. This will be their first meeting of the season after the two teams split the 4 meetings last year.
Flin Flon has played the Klippers well in the past and I am very much looking forward to this great matchup on Wednesday between the two best offensive clubs in the league. The Bombers have scored 82 goals in 20 games and Kindersley have found the back of the net 77 times in 23 games.
Kindersley is the only team Flin Flon has not played this season. 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com will not have the broadcast of this game, but we will have the two road broadcasts from Melville Saturday and a huge divisional matchup in Nipawin Sunday.
