The Flin Flon Bombers got some much needed secondary scoring and were able to double up on the Kindersley Klippers 4 to 2 last night and snap a three game losing streak.
The Bombers were stifled on the first two games of the trip and dropped a 3 to 1 decision in Humboldt on Thursday and Kindersley held off the Maroon and White 3 to 2 on Friday.
A lot of the focus heading into Saturday was the team's lack of production 5 on 5 the last few games and needing someone other than Justin Lies and Carter Anderson to start scoring.
Flin Flon got exactly what they needed when Riley Niven took a perfect pass from Anthony Piccininno from back of the Klipper net. Niven took the pass and made no mistake by firing it top corner on goalie Cody Jaman.
That was the only goal in the first period and the Bombers rode the momentum into the second when Keefe Gruener bounced on a sweet rebound in front of the Klipper net to pick up his second since arriving from the AJHL on deadline day.
The goal seemed to kickstart the Klippers who got the deficit to one, when former Bomber, Brock Mueller scored on the powerplay to collect his 11th of the season and 6th as a Klipper.
Entering the third, the Bombers would get a very important insurance goal which stood up as the game winner when Kylynn Olafson was able to take a pass from Dawson Karol. Karol got across the Klipper line and was able to find Olafson open in front of the net and he made no mistake.
This was Olafson's 5th of the season and his third against Kindersley this year. Cam Perlinger would make things interesting when he jammed in a loose puck on Harmon Laser Hume late in the game , but that is as close as the Klippers would get.
Adam McNutt was able to hit the empty net with just 40 seconds left in the game to preserve the Bombers win and give the club a big sigh of relief as wins have been tough to come by.
Flin Flon was able to salvage one win on the road trip and snap the three game losing streak. I give Kindersley a lot of credit as they are a totally different team that was at the Whitney Forum in October.
They are extremely feisty and are getting great goaltending from Cody Jaman who stopped 35 out of 38 including three clear cut break aways. Harmon Laser Hume was able to pick up his league leading 27th win, with 22 saves on 24 shots.
Wins are a little tougher to come by with a lot of teams already in playoff mode and are still fighting just to get into the post season. Not to mention everybody wants to knock off the number one team in the country.
Kindersley is one of those teams that had their three game winning streak snapped and are currently in 6th spot with 50 points, which is just a single point behind Melville for fifth.
They are tied with Estevan, and both teams are 4 points up on Weyburn for the final playoff spot.
Flin Flon has officially clinched first overall and now sit at 41-6-2 and lead the second place Battleford Stars by 14 points who just went 0 for 3 on their Southern road trip and won't be able to catch the Bombers with only 6 games left.
The Bombers have 7 games remaining and will host the Estevan Bruins in a pair of games this weekend, Friday and Saturday.
This could also be a possible first round playoff matchup with the Bruins just 4 points up on Weyburn for 8th who do have 2 games in hand.
It will be a very interesting end to the season with 5th through 8th separated by just 5 points. You will be able to hear the Saturday game against the Bruins on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.
