One of the best games I have seen in recent memory in terms of back and forth action between the Flin Flon Bombers and Estevan Bruins Saturday night at the Whitney Forum.
Both teams went at each other hard and speed was the name of the game as the Bruins knocked off the Bombers 5-4 in the shootout to pick up their 13th win of the season.
Estevan opened up the scoring 4:25 into the second period when Edmands finished up a 3 on 1 on a helpless Robidoux. The Bombers responded when Lavallee fired his 5th of the year behind Nic Tallarico on the PP at 16:29.
Both teams would score one more each before the second period was over. The Bombers would take their only lead of the game when Lesko scored his 8th of the season short handed, finishing a nice rush led by Nik Shumlanski who was flying all night.
The Bruins tied it on the same powerplay when Holt picked up his 14th of the season with only 52 seconds left in the period.
Lots of offense in the third with the Bruins picking up yet another powerplay goal when Witzke scored just 1:20 into the final frame. Flin Flon again answered when Lesko got his second of the night and the Bomber's only even strength goal of the game, firing a perfect shot under the crossbar from a tough angle.
The Bruins did a good job of not allowing Flin Flon to get any momentum and seemed to stay a step ahead of them all game when McNeil would put Estevan ahead for the third time in the game 4-3 just over a minute into the final period.
Depite some injuries Saskatoon's Kristian St.Onge is having a nice season and he buried a nice rebound past the Bruin netminder Tallarico to tie the game once more at 4 a piece with more than ten minutes remaining on the clock.
The rest of regulation and OT would settle nothing as it would take a shoot-out to decide this one.
The first shooter from Estevan Jason Miller was the only player to pot a goal as all three Bombers came up empty and the Bruins would celebrate their 13th win of the season and second over Flin Flon 5-4.
Final shots 49-36 in favour of Flin Flon with both teams going 2 for 5 on the powerplay.
It was another decent weekend for the Bombers who picked up 3 out of a possible 4 points with a 4-2 win over Weyburn Friday. Flin Flon fired 69 shots at the Wing net which may be a modern day record for the Maroon and White.
Mike Reagan says he doesn't remember any other games like that and I was thinking you would probably have to go back to the late 70's early 80's, when the Bombers were beating teams 25-0 in the Norman league for the last time Flin Flon had 69 shots in a game.
The Bombers record after the weekend sits at 8-6-2-2 and are tied with Nipawin for first in the Sherwood with 20 points, but the Hawks have 4 games in hand.
Flin Flon will now prepare for the rematch of this past Spring's Canalta Cup Final when they face off against Melfort in a pair of games mid-week. The Mustangs come to the Whitney Forum for the first time this season Wednesday with the Bombers in Melfort Thursday.
Thursday's game will be on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com with the Murray GM Coach's Show at 8:15 and drop of the puck at 8:30 MB time.
