Full marks to the Battleford Stars for coming into the Whitney Forum and grabbing 4 points this weekend.
It is not easy to win one game at the Whitney Forum let alone two, but the Stars were a determined group that did just that.
Battleford built up a 2-0 lead on Friday with goals from Kleiboer and Lamb in the first period, before the Bombers tied it with a powerplay goal from Lesko and a nice effort from Lavallee in the second.
It looked like it may stay even heading into the third period but Horn answered Lavallee's goal just 15 seconds after the Bomber veteran tied it to give the Stars a 3-2 lead after 2.
Ben Lafermann would once again get the Bombers even when he fired a point shot through a crowd at 8:41 of the final stanza, which rounded out the scoring in regulation.
Flin Flon played well but returning goalie Taryn Kotchorek was on his game making some great saves to get the game to OT.
I honestly thought this game would end 3 on 3 and then the Bombers were rewarded a powerplay and I thought this could be their night, but Kotchorek wouldn't break.
So, shootout here we come and both goalies played strong, with just one shooter able to find the back of the net and that was Star captain Kendall Fransoo lifting a shot just under the bar on Zac Robidoux.
This sent Battleford into a frenzy as they celebrated their 7th win of the season 4-3 in the shoot out.
Final shots were Battleford 45 and Flin Flon 44.
The North Stars carried the momentum into the next game, and played a perfect road game keeping most of the Bomber shots to the outside and limiting Flin Flon's chances en route to the 3-0 win Saturday.
Connor Sych scored two powerplay goals late in the second period on a 5 minute major assessed to Greyson Reitmeier for boarding. I have called a lot of games in my career and I don't remember seeing a player ejected for boarding before.
The longer you are around, you eventually to get to see everything.
For the second straight night the Bombers were down coming out for the third period, but this time the deficit was 2 goals not 1.
Mike Reagan did mix and match the lines, but they couldn't get any pucks past Joel Grybowski, who stopped all 27 shots fired in his direction for his 4th straight win. The Stars added an empty net goal from Nachtegaele.
Brenden Newton was back in net for Flin Flon and he stopped 33 out of 35 shots and I thought he did a nice job on not giving up any rebounds and seemed pretty poised.
After the weekend the Bomber record stands at: 6-2-1-1, first in the Sherwood, 4 points up on Nipawin but the Hawks have two games in hand.
Battleford is 8-3 and trail first place Humboldt by just one point and are an impressive 6-1 on the road.
This was the first meeting between these two teams since the Bombers eliminated the Stars from the playoffs in 5 games earlier in the Spring.
A big test is coming up for Flin Flon who will play 4 games in 5 nights starting in Humboldt Wednesday. The Broncos are a league best 6-0 at home, but it was in Humboldt where the Bombers turned their season around last year. Flin Flon is confident they can win there.
Other stops include Estevan, Weyburn and Notre Dame. No broadcasts of these games and we won't be back on the air til Saturday October the 22nd at home against Kindersley.
