Both the Hapnot JV Kings  and Senior Queens basketball teams will be in action this weekend.

The Kings will be in Gillam and will face Steinbach in their first game on Friday. The Queens are in Swan River and have a tough test in their first game against Neelin.

you can follow all the results for both tournaments at mhsaa.ca.

Hapnot Collegiate will host High School Curling Zones this weekend with teams coming in from The Pas, Thompson and Gillam.

In the girls, there will be two Hapnot teams and two Thompson teams. In the boys there is three teams from MBCI in the Pas and one team from Gillam.

The two Hapnot girl's teams will square off Friday at 1, with action right through Saturday. All teams are guaranteed three games.

It is a big weekend at both the Sportex and Whitney Forum, as Flin Flon Minor Hockey will present the Teagan Quinn Memorial Pee Wee Tournament starting Friday.

This will be both a Double A and A Tournament with teams from Flin Flon, The Pas, Thompson, Pelican Narrows and Swan River.

The Flin Flon Kinsmen AA Bombers will play the AA Pas Huskies to start things off at noon, followed by the A Bombers against The Pas at 1:45. Both games are at the Whitney, and here are the rest of the games scheduled for the weekend.

Friday-Feb 2nd

Pas AA VS Thompson AA- 3:30-Whitney

Pelican A VS Thompson A- 3:30- Sportex

Flin Flon A VS Swan River A- 5:15- Whitney

Flin Flon AA VS Thompson AA-7PM-Whitney

The Pas A VS Pelican A-7PM-Sportex

Saturday Feb 3rd

Thompson A VS Swan River A- 9AM-Whitney

Pelican A VS Flin Flon A-10:45-Whitney

The Pas AA VS Thompson AA-10:45-Sportex

Thompson A VS The Pas A-12:30-Whitney

Flin Flon AA VS The Pas AA- 2:15-Sportex

Swan River A VS The Pas A- 4PM-Whitney

Flin Flon A VS Swan River A- 4PM-Sportex

Flin Flon AA VS Thompson AA-5:45-Sportex

Pelican A VS Swan River A- 7:15-Sportex

Playoffs start Sunday at 10:45, with the Gold Medal game at 1:30 at the Whitney Forum.

The Uptown Curling Club will be hosting two more bonspiels coming up later in February.

The Master's Men's Bonspiel for 60 and over will take place February the 10th and 11th.

A brand new event this year will be the Senior Mixed for 50 and over taking place February the 24th and 25th. All the funds raised for this bonspiel will go right back into the club.

You can sign up for both these events right at the rink.

The Aqua Jets had 16 swimmers attend a big meet in Thompson. For the girls, Madison Campbell had 6 firsts.  5 provincial  A times.  Evalina Dauk had a 3rd.  Tamika Dumas had 5 firsts and a second with 1 provincial qualifying time. Lauren Fox had 6 1st place ribbons.  Isabel Plamondon had a second, a third, 2 fourths a fifth and a sixth. Madeline Sapergia Green had a 6th place ribbon, and Savannah Thurstan had 2 firsts, 3 seconds and a third and 1 provincial qualifying time.

Now the boys

Jordan Gorrell had 5 firsts and a second with 1 provincial qualifying time.  Cory Lane had 1 first, 2 seconds and 2 thirds.  Dax Lawrence had 4 firsts and 2 seconds with 2 provincial qualifying times. Eli Plamondon had 4 firsts a second and a third.  Owen Qiu had 6 firsts and 2 qualifying times.  Brennen Sapergia Green had 1 first, 3 seconds a third and a fourth and Kaleb Sapergia had a first, a third, a fourth and a 6th.

Qualifying times means they can go and compete at Jr Provincials in Winnipeg February 16th to 18th 

The Uptown Curling Club hosted both the Senior Men's and Ladies Bonspiels which wrapped up yesterday afternoon.

In the Men's draw

Jim Meyer over Grant McLuckie in the Main Event for McMunn and Yates.

2nd Event for The Steelworkers it was Don Holmes over Dave Blatherwick.

3rd Event for Flin Flon Insurance, Dale Connolly beat Russ Kennedy.

Ladies results

Main Event- Sue Chrisp over Gene Kostochuk

2nd Event- Anne Hardy beat Dianne Burwash

The Flin Flon Bombers wrapped up a 3 game in 3 night road trip last night in Humboldt, dropping a 6-4 decision to the Broncos.

Flin Flon was coming off a 2-1 shoot- out loss to Melville Thursday, and an 11 round 4-3 shoot-out win over Yorkton Friday. This was the Bombers first win in the shoot out this season with Caleb Moretz not only scoring with 27 seconds left in the game to tie it, but he also had the shoot -out winner.

The Maroon and White were feeling good about themselves with the possibility of grabbing 5 out of 6 points.

It was the Bronco's who came out with the quick start. Former Bomber Nick Shumlanski came back to haunt his old team when he fed a sweet pass to Jaxon Joseph who one timed a nice low shot past Brenden Newton to open up the scoring at 10:52.

Humboldt would add one more goal in the first period when Logan Schatz broke up a pass at the Bronco blue line and reeled in on a break away to score a short handed goal to make it 2-0 Broncos after one.

Bryce Fiske added a power play goal early in the second to give Humboldt a commanding 3-0 lead and put the Bombers in a bit of a bind.

One thing about these young Bombers is they never give up. Rob Johnson got Flin Flon on the board when he took a stretch pass from Alex Lidstrom and broke in alone to beat Parker Tobin.

That goal seemed to spark the Bomber's who got their power play going when Crystopher Collin scored his team leading 19th of the year, burying a one timer from Nate Hooper, to get the deficit to 3-2 after 2.

The Broncos restored the two goal lead when Grayson Cameron made it 4-2 early in the third. Brandson Hein would make it a 1 goal game again just 15 seconds later when he and Nate Hooper went to work.

Humboldt kept pressing and restored the two goal lead once more with a goal from Kaleb Dahlgren. The best Bomber this night was Brandson Heine who jumped on a rebound in front of the Bronco net, to score his second of the night and third of the road trip, to give his team life again making it 5-4.

That is where the come back ended as Lukan would add another Humboldt power play goal and the Broncos took the contest 6-4. Final shots were 44-28 in favour of the Broncos. The Bomber powerplay was good, going 2 for 5, while Humboldt was 2 for 9.

So the Bombers come home with a 1-1-1 record and feel they could have easily been 3-0. They had multitudes of great chances they didn't convert in all 3 games, but are happy to come home 500.

Flin Flon sits with an overall record of 16-20-3-4 which is 9th overall, 2 points behind Kindersley. Nipawin did the Bombers a favour on Saturday  beating the Klippers 3-2.

Next up will be a home and home with Laronge this weekend. Friday at the Mel and back at the Whitney Forum on Saturday. Both games will be broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

The Flin Flon Figure Skating Club are hosting the 2018 Skate Canada, Manitoba Norman Regional Starskate Competition and Funskate this Saturday at the Whitney Forum.

Skaters will be taking part from The Pas, Thompson and Flin Flon and range in ages from 6-17.

They will be performing in the Freeskate, Interpetive and Showcase in an all day event.

All events open to the public and it will only cost $5.00 for adults, $2,00 for kids 6-17 and 5 and under free.

The competition will start at 1:30.

The Senior Ladies and Men's Curling Bonspiels will take place this Saturday and Sunday at the Uptown Curling Club. There are 8 men's teams and 5 for the ladies.

Here is the draw:

Men

Saturday at 9:30

McCluckie VS Munson

Holmes VS Veilgut

Saturday- noon

Blatherwick VS Meyer

Connolly VS Kennedy

Ladies

Saturday- 9:30

Kostochuk VS Burwash

Saturday- noon

Chrisp VS Cassidy

All the finals will be played Sunday at 1.

The Norman Regional Minor Hockey Association will be hosting the 2018 Directors Cup Prospects tryout camp this weekend at the Creighton Sportex.

This is open to any 13 year olds born in 2004 and registration will be this Saturday at the Sportex at 12:30.

There will be two ice sessions Saturday at 2 and 6 PM, and one ice session on Sunday at 12:30. You can pre-register on the Norman web-site at normanminorhockey.com. The registration fee is $125.00.

For more information contact Rene at 204-358-0492.

The Hapnot JV Queens basketball team put together a solid effort in Gimli and were able to win the Consolation after a slow start on Friday.

After a tough 20-16  loss to Warren, the Queens rebounded with a big win over Carmen 32-29 and made it to the Consolation Final where they faced Niverville.

In a game that went back and forth the Queens had a great fourth quarter and pulled out the 32-29 win.

The Senior Kings were in Sanfod and lost both their games to the U of W and Linden Christian.

The Norman Wolves dropped a pair of games against Pembina Valley over the weekend in Thompson.

The Hawks took it to the Wolves Saturday 8-1 and Sunday 5-2. Flin Flon's Justin Lies scored all the goals to give him 35 on the season. Norman will fall to 6-26-0-0-2 on the season.

Norman won't play again til they host the Parkland Rangers February the 3rd and 4th in Thompson.

The Norman Nothstars had another tough weekend down south losing to Brandon 12-3, Southwest 8-0 and Parkland 7-2.

It was a decent weekend for Flin Flon's Mitchell Reid who was in on 3 of the 5 goals Norman scored including two goals and one assist.

Norman will host the league leading Winnipeg Wild this Friday and Saturday.

The Werbicki Trucking Bantam AA Bombers hosted a bantam tournament at the Sportex this past weekend with the Bombers getting revenge against Swan River in the final 3-0.

Swan beat Flin Flon in the round robin, but the Bombers put together a solid effort yesterday afternoon in the re-match.

Flin Flon goal scorers were: Ashton Paul, Blake Alexander and Austin McLean. Shayne Price was great in goal picking up the shut-out.

Thompson beat OCN 6-4 in the Bronze Medal game. Final standings were Flin Flon 4-1, Swan River 4-1, OCN 1-3 and Thompson 1-3.

Next tournament for the Werbicki Trucking Bantam AA Bombers will be February the 17th in Swan River.

After a 6 day break the Flin Flon Bombers will be back at the Whitney Forum tonight, getting ready for a familiar foe from the Sherwood Division in the Laronge Ice Wolves.

Flin Flon leads the season series 4-2 including the two back to back wins to close out 2017, 4-1 on December the 30th and 7-3 in Laronge New Years Eve.

The Bombers haven't played since last Saturday, but a number of Bombers were involved in the first ever SJHL/MJHL Showcase Event in Regina this past Monday and Tuesday.

Crystopher Collin, Calvon Boots, Caleb Moretz, Nate Hooper and Brenden Newton all had good performances and all indications from Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan, the first Showcase was a big success.

Flin Flon is coming off a great wekend where they took 3 out of a possible 4 points from the defending Canalta Cup Champion Battleford Stars and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time of the year. The Bombers are 6-1-1 in their last 7 and have put a lot of room between them and the teams chasing them.

Entering play this weekend Flin Flon lead Melville by 7 points, Yorkton by 16 and Laronge by 19. The Bombers are battling Kindersley for 8th spot and home ice for the Survivor Series. The Klippers lead the Bombers by 2 points with two games in hand.

Laronge looked like they were ready to turn the corner before Christmas when they beat the Bombers twice, but have dropped 7 in a row and shipped their 20 year old's out to contenders.

I don't want to say Laronge won't make the playoffs, but they would have to go on an incredible run with only 20 games left and the Wolves 12 points behind Melville. Laronge does have a game in hand and they will meet two more times this season.

This will be the Bombers last home game of January as they will hit the road for three starting next Thursday in Melville, Friday in Yorkton and Saturday in Humboldt. All three broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

We will not broadcast tonight's game.

It was another good day for members of the Flin Flon Bombers at the first ever SJHL/MJHL Showcase in Regina.

The SJHL managed to take two out of three against the MJHL, to finish the two day event at 5-1.

It all started with Team MJHL Garbutt picking up their only win , 5-2  over Team Schwartz to earn a split in the two games betwen the two squads.

The SJHL barely hung on to win the second game of the day with Team Mitchell over Team Belfour 4-3 in OT.

Team Mitchell was up 3-0, before getting into penalty trouble and allowed the MJHL to mount the comeback with a couple goals late in the third period.

The Bombers Brenden Newton picked up the win stopping 20 out of 23 shots and was chosen the SJHL game star. Caleb Moretz also added an assist. Melfort's Kalem Zary scored the OT winner.

In the final game of the day, the SJHL Team Kunitz built up a 4-0 lead and hung on for a 5-2 win over Team Zajac. Humboldt's Logan Schatz scored a goal and added two assists.

All indications are that the first ever SJHL/MJHL Showcase was a success and SJHL President Bill Chow has confirmed the event will be back in Regina next year.

Good luck to the Hapnot Senior Kings and Hapnot JV Queens who will both be travelling to tournaments this weekend.

The Kings will be in Sanford for the first ever Wintercat tournament. Hapnot will play the U of W in their first game Friday afternnon. If they win that game they will play later Friday night. If they lose, they will drop to the B-side and play Saturday.

The Queens are in Gimli and they play Warren to start the tournament Friday.

You can follow all the results at mhsaa.ca/tournaments.

The Werbicki Trucking Bantam AA Bombers will host a tournament this weekend at the Sportex with the games starting Friday.

Teams will be competing from Thompson, Norway House, OCN, Swan River and Flin Flon.

Here is the complete schedule.

Friday - January 19, 2018

4:30  Flin Flon Bombers  OCN Blizzard Sportex

6:15  Thompson King Miners Norway House Northstars Sportex

8:00  OCN Blizzard  Swan River Stampeders Sportex

Saturday - January 20, 2018

10:30  Thompson King Miners 3 Swan River Stampeders Sportex

12:15  Flin Flon Bombers 2 Norway House Northstars Sportex

2:00  OCN Blizzard 1 Thompson King Miners Sportex

3:45  Swan River Stampeders 4 Flin Flon Bombers Sportex

5:30  Norway House Northstars 3 OCN Blizzard Sportex

Sunday - January 21, 2018

9:00  Norway House Northstars 3 Swan River Stampeders Sportex

10:45  Thompson King Miners 4 Flin Flon Bombers Sportex

B Final

1:45 TBA 3rd Place TBA 4th Place Sportex

A Final

3:30 TBA 1st Place TBA 2nd Place Sportex

It was a clean sweep for the SJHL on day one of the SJHL/MJHL Showcase at the Co-operators Centre in Regina.

A number of Flin Flon Bombers made their presence felt. In the first game for players born bewtween 99 and 2001 team Schwartz knocked off team Garbutt 5-1.

Crystopher Collin led the way with a pair of goals including a break away goal after stepping out of the penalty box in the second period. Bomber bench boss Mike Reagan was the coach for this game.

Team Mitchell doubled up on team Zajac 4-2 for players born between 97-98. Once again a number of Bombers were involved in the scoring,  with former Bomber Nick Shumlanski converting a beautiful pass from Caleb Moretz to open things up in the first period. Calvon Boots also scored a goal with Estevan's Michael McChesney adding a pair.

In the third game of the day, team Kunitz defeated team Belfor 4-2 on the strength of two goals from Notre Dame's Chance Longjohn.

Here is today's schedule.

Game 1- Team Schwartz (SJHL) vs Team Gurbutt (MJHL) 99/00’s.  Time: 10:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.

Game 2-Team Mitchell (SJHL) vs Team Belfour MJHL 97/98’s.  Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Game 3-Team Kunitz (SJHL) vs Team Zajac MJHL 97/98’s.  Time: 5:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

The Norman AAA Bantam Wolves wrapped up another road trip yesterday with an 8-3 loss to the Southwest Cougars .

Goals came from Flin Flon's Justin Lies, Chase Bertholet  from the Pas, and Clark Scadden from Thompson.

The Wolves also dropped a 7-2 game to Parkland and lost 8-2 to Pembina Valley, with their one win coming against the Winnipeg Sharks 6-2.

It was a very good weekend for Justin Lies who picked up 4 goals and leads the Wolves with 32 in 30 games and sits fifth overall in points with 51. Chase Bertholet sits third with 60.

Norman's record will slip to 6-24-0-0-2 and return to Thompson this weekend to face Pembina Valley.

The Norman Northstars were also on the road and picked up their first road win of the season when they beat Eastman 5-4 on Friday in OT.

Mikey Baron had the OT winner. Norman lost their two other games to the Winnipeg Bruins 13-3 and Interlake Lightning 7-3.

Flin Flon's Mitchell Reid and Jordan Pfoh both had a goal and an assist over the weekend with Freddie Ledoux also adding a goal.

The Northstars sit at 3-30-0-0-1 and hit the road for another three games starting Friday in Brandon.

The Flin Flon Bombers continued their fine play in 2018 and managed to grab 3 out of a possible 4 points against the defending league champs from Battleford.

The Bombers dropped a 4-3 game in OT Friday and thought they deserved a better fate, and were very motivated for Saturday night.

For the second straight night, the Bombers spotted the Stars a 2-0 lead. Urbanski and Kleiboer scored to put Battleford up 2-0 after 1.

After a shaky start in the second, Bomber rookie d- man Calvon Boots went to work scoring a pair of goals, seven seconds apart to quickly tie the game at two. I am going over Bomber stats and rosters throughout the years and I am convinced this is a Bomber record for two fastest goals for a defenseman.

I will post more on this blog once I find out for sure. Boots's two goals deifinately changed the complection of the game and gave the Bombers a lot of momentum.

Vaughan Bamford who played forward this night, would put the Bombers up 3-2 late in the second period for their first lead of the weekend.

The Stars would tie the game early in the third when Chaseton Braid snuck across the Bomber blue line and fooled Brenden Newton with a low snap shot for his 11th of the year.

Flin Flon kept battling,  and were rewarded with a bit of a fluky goal when Dylan Burton fought hard along the wall and got a bouncing puck to go past Taryn Kotchorek for the eventual game winner to make the final 4-3.

I have been mentioning Burton a lot in our broadcasts lately and I am impressed with his work ethic and how he is bringing a physical presence to his game. I am not surprised he scored the game winning goal.

Brenden Newton continues to play well and was one of the best Bombers on the weekend stopping 31 out of 34 shots, while Kotchorek stopped 21 out of 25. Neither team could strike on the PP, with the Bombers 0 for 5 and the Stars 0 for 6.

What a start to 2018 with the Bombers improving to 3-1-1 and they have won 6 of their last 8 games and sit 15-19-2-3 which is 9th overall. The Bombers are just two points behind Kindersley but the Klippers have two games in hand.

Flin Flon conitinues to put more room between them and the clubs trying to chase down the last playoff spots. The Bombers are 7 up on Melville, 16 up on Yorkton and 19 ahead of Laronge.

The league will take a break til Friday as they prepare for the first ever SJHL/MJHL Showcase in Regina starting tomorrow.

Good luck to Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan, Crystopher Collin, Brenden Newton, Nate Hooper, Calvon Boots and Caleb Moretz who will all be taking part.

Next game for the Bombers is Friday January the 19th against Laronge, our next broadcast is Thursday January the 25th in Melville.

Creighton hosted the 11th annual Kit Classic Senior Girls Basketball tournament this past weekend with teams from all over Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan taking part.

Hapnot went undefeated and ended up beating Creighton in the final 52-39. Nipawin finished third beating MBCI out of the Pas.

Hats off to both the Hapnot JV'S and Creighton B team who both entered the tournament late to take the place of some teams that couldn't make it.

The Hapnot JV'S went 1-2 while Creighton finished 0-2 but competed vey hard in both games.

The Norman Northstars will try to put a disappointing weekend against Pembina Valley behind them when they start a three game road trip tonight against Eastman.

Tomorrow they play the Winnipeg Bruins before wrapping up the trip on Sunday against Interlake.

The Northstars have just two wins in their first 31 games.

Flin Flon's Mitchell Reid continues to lead the team in goals with 12 and sits fourth in points with 20.

The January trade deadline has come and gone and the Flin Flon Bombers did make a couple of moves, which included trading their leading scorer.

Nick Shumlanski is now a Humboldt Bronco. Shumlanski has been with Flin Flon the better part of 4 seasons and had 39 points in 35 games including 15 in the last 12.

The Bombers will get future considerations and Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan talks about the trade.

" First of all we want to thank Nick for all his contributions to the hockey club. He has been with us since he was 15 years old and helped get us to the finals the last two years. He plays the way we want our players to be Bombers. It was tough to trade him, but at the end of the day Nick wanted a chance to go to a team that is making a push. We also wanted to look after the future of our club and in return we will get two players and good compensation for Nick. We are happy with the deal, there were a lot of teams interested in him and we thought the deal with Humboldt made the most sense."

Flin Flon also got some good news yesterday as 98 forward Branson Hein has been re-assigned from Everett of the WHL and will join the Bombers for the rest of the season.

Hein should fit in well as he is already familliar with a number of Bomber players including Nate Hooper, Dawson McKenzie, Mason Martin and Dylan Burton who he played triple a midget with in Winnipeg.

Hein had 12 points in 78 games with Everitt the past two seasons.

The SJHL also announced the rosters for the SJHL/MJHL Showcase in Regina next Monday and Tuesday.

The Bombers will have 5 players taking part.

Cystopher Collin will suit up for team Schwartz (players born between 99 and 2000). This team will also be coached by Mike Reagan.

Flin Flon will have 4 players on team Mitchell (players born between 97 and 98.)

Goalie Brenden Newton, Defenseman Calvon Boots and forwards Caleb Moretz and Nate Hooper.

Next action for the Maroon and White will be this weekend when they welcome the defending Canalta Cup Champion Battleford Stars to town on Friday and Saturday. 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com will have Saturday's broadcast.

The Senior Men's and Ladies Curling Bonspiels are set to go the weekend of January the 27th and 28th at the Uptown Curling Club.

It is open to anyone 50 and over and it will cost you $40.00 which includes curling, prizes and a banquet.

Sign up sheets are at the Uptown Curling Club and deadline is Monday January the 22nd.

The Norman AAA Bantam Wolves who are 1-3 to start 2018 will kick off another long road trip starting tomorrow in Parkland.

Friday they play Pembina Valley, Saturday the Winnipeg Sharks, before wrapping things up on Sunday against Southwest.

Norman have already picked up more wins than they had all last season, at 6-19-0-1 and sit 10th overall out of 13 teams.

The Wolves are led offensively by Chase Bertholet out of the Pas  who leads the team in scoring with 56 points, while Flin Flon's Justin Lies sits second in points with 48 and first in goals with 29.

The Werbicki Trucking Bantam AA Bombers were in Winnipeg to compete in the Jets AA Showdown and held their own against some very tough competition.

The Bombers lost to the Winnipeg East Railcats 3-2 in OT, to open the tournament but did rebound against the Estevan Bruins  to win 3-2 in the shoot out.

The Bombers also lost to ST.James 7-5 and 13-1 to a club out of Sweden to finish fourth in the round robin.

Flin Flon ended the tournament on a positive note beating the Regina Buffalos 4-3 to win the Consolation.

The Pas hosted the A&W , Funky Threads Novice tournament at both the GLMC and Roy H Johnston arena .

The Hudson Bay Hunters beat the Reliance Rhinos in the A Final, the Swan Valley Mustangs beat the Flin Flon Fireman in the B-Final and the Flin Flon Oldtimers beat the Pas Huskies Red to capture the E-Final.

The Jason Morran Memorial Atom hockey tournament took place at both the Sportex and Whitney Forum over the weekend. The organizers did a wonderful job and congratulations to all the volunteers who helped out with the first minor hockey tournament of 2018.

When it was all said and done the Thompson King Miners defeated the AA Bombers 5-1 in the AA Final yesterday afternoon.

In the A Division Final Swan River beat The Pas 4-0.

In the A Division B Final, Flin Flon beat the Pas 7-1

In the B Division A Final Swan over the Pas 10-0

B Division B Final Flin Flon beat Snow Lake 4-3 in the shoot out.

The Flin Flon Bombers put together another solid weekend and swept a pair of games against the Yorkton Terriers.

The Bombers blasted Yorkton 8-2 on Friday night after giving up two first period goals. The Maroon and White managed to tie the game at two after two before opening the flood gates in the third.

Flin Flon took advantage of a nine minute power play to open the final period and scored three goals to put the game out of reach. They would also add three more even strength for the convincing 8-2 win.

Crystopher Collin did a lot of the damage with a 5 point night. Isaac Jackson chipped in with two goals with the other offense coming from Hooper, Marchi, Houle and Funk.

Brenden Newton did the job when called upon making 25 out of 27 saves. The Bomber power play was red hot going 3 for 5 while holding Yorkton at bay 0 for 2.

Saturday, the Bombers scored first when Jordan McCausland scored his first of the season on a short handed break away. McCausland has battled injuries this season but is making the most of his return to the lineup and is one of the grittiest and toughest players to play against in the league.

Ethan Daniels scored the only goal in the second, when he broke in alone on Ben Laidlaw and pocketed his 10th of the year on the power play.

Rob Johnson scored early in the third in what turned out to be a very big goal for the Bombers. With a 3-0 lead it looked like Flin Flon may coast to another easy victory.

Give Yorkton credit, they never stopped competing and would mount a come back. Cody Bruchkowski scored his team leading 14th of the season, when he fooled Brenden Newton with a shot just inside the blue line.

This gave the Terriers life and they would draw within one , when Keenleyside scored a late power play goal. With just over three minutes remaining in regulation, the Terriers got a late pp and pulled their goalie to go 6 on 4.

The Bombers won some key faceoffs and were able to hold Yorkton off the score sheet the rest of the way and held on for a 3-2 win for their 5th straight win.

Final shots were in the Bombers favour big time at 60-39. Yorkton goalie Ben Laidlaw was the game's first star and was the biggest reason the Terriers were able to stay in the game,  and almost stole this one with a lot of big saves, including several in the third period.

What a difference a couple weeks make as Flin Flon has been able to rattle off 5 straight wins and are starting to get a lot more breathing room for a playoff spot. The Bomber record now stands at 14-18-1-3.

After last night the Bombers lead Laronge by 16 points, Yorkton by 13 and Melville by 4. The Bombers also have a game in hand on both Yorkton and Melville and prepare for a very challenging week.

Flin Flon will travel to Melfort on Tuesday before hosting the defending Canalta Cup Champion Battleford Stars on Friday and Saturday. It will be a very interesting January 10th deadline for the Bombers who  just a few weeks ago looked like they would be big sellers, but who knows what happens now.

Mike Reagan did indicate on last night's Great North GM Coach's Show that he would be listening to offers. You can catch Tuesday's game from Melfort on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

After a 4 point weekend against Laronge to close out 2017, the Flin Flon Bombers are ready for the Yorkton Terriers and 2018.

The Bombers will see their first action of the new year, as they welcome the Terriers to the Whitney Forum for the first time this season.

Yorkton trails Flin Flon by 9 points for the last overall playoff spot, and the Bombers do have a game in hand.

This is another team the Bombers need to beat to not only move up the standings , but to  make a statement against. Mike Reagan feels very good about the way his team has played lately, but doesn't want to get to far ahead of themselves especially with the majority of their wins against teams under 500.

Yorkton has also played better of late going 4-5-0-1 in their last 10, which is pretty signifigant when you factor in they only have 8 wins on the season. The Terriers have battled a lot of adversity this year including a coaching change back in late October when Matt Hehr took over for Casey O'Brien.

Hehr has the Terriers playing better including a big New Years day victory against their arch rival Melville Millionaires 4-3 on Monday.

There is little room for error heading down the stretch, so I expect this to be another playoff atmosphere this weekend, with both teams needing good showings. If Flin Flon want to move up the standings they will need all 4 points, and Yorkton can't afford to fall any further back so they need both wins.

The Bombers took 7 out of a possible 8 points in last years 4 meetings.

It will also be interesting to see how players on these two teams respond this weekend with the January 10th trade deadline just around the corner. The results of these two games could determine which direction these two teams decide to go in.

No matter what go's down, once again you will have the best seat in the house with Saturday's game broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com. We hit the air with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:15 and play by play at 7:30.

The Jason Morran Memorial Atom hockey tournament starts this weekend at the Sportex and Whitney Forum. Here is the complete schedule.

Friday January 5, 2018
12:00
B
Flin Flon Bombers
Swan Valley Stampeders
Whitney Forum
1:30
A
Flin Flon Bombers
OCN Blizzard
Whitney Forum

3:00
AA
Flin Flon Bombers
The Pas Huskies
Whitney Forum

4:30
B
Thompson Carrol Areos
Snow Lake Spartans
Whitney Forum

6:00
A
Thompson King Miners
The Pas Huskies
Sportex

7:30
AA
Thompson King Miners
Swan Valley Stampeders
Sportex

Saturday January 6, 2018
8:30
B
Swan Valley Stampeders
Thompson Carrol Areos
Whitney Forum

10:00
B
Snow Lake Spartans
Flin Flon Bombers
Whitney Forum

11:30
AA
The Pas Huskies
Thompson King Miners
Sportex

11:30
AA
Swan Valley Stampeders
Flin Flon Bombers
Whitney Forum

1:00
A
Flin Flon Bombers
Thompson King Miners
Sportex

1:00
A
The Pas Huskies
OCN Blizzard
Whitney Forum

2:30
B
Flin Flon Bombers
Thompson Carrol Areos
Sportex

2:30
B
Snow Lake Spartans
Swan Valley Stampeders
Whitney Forum

4:00
AA
Flin Flon Bombers
Thompson King Miners
Sportex

4:00
A
The Pas Huskies
Flin Flon Bombers
Whitney Forum

5:30
AA
The Pas Huskies
Swan Valley Stampeders
Sportex

7:00
A
OCN Blizzard
Thompson King Miners
Sportex

Sunday January 7, 2018
B Division – B Final – 3rd Place vs 4th Place
9:00
Whitney Forum

A Division – B Final – 3rd Place vs 4th Place
9:00
Sportex

AA Division – B Final – 3rd Place vs 4th Place
10:30
Whitney Forum

B Division – A Final – 1st Place vs 2nd Place
10:30
Sportex

A Division – A Final – 1st Place vs 2nd Place
12:00
Whitney Forum

AA Division – A Final – 1st Place vs 2nd Place
1:30
Whitney Forum     
 

The Werbicki Trucking Bantam AA Bombers are off to Winnipeg to compete in the Winnipeg Jets AA Showdown which will start at the MTS Ice Plex on Friday.

Here are the AA Bombers schedule.

Friday at 11:05 VS the Winnipeg East Railcats and 6:35 VS Estevan Bruins

Saturday 8:15 AM VS ST.James Canadiens and 8:30 VS Tullinge TP-HC from Sweden.

Playoff rounds start Sunday at 9:30.

The Flin Flon Bombers couldn't of closed out 2017 any better after sweeping the Laronge Ice Wolves on the final weekend of the year.

Flin Flon took Saturday's game at the Whitney Forum 4-1 with the offense coming from Johnson, Shumlanski, Moretz and Funk with Brenden Newton making 28 saves for the victory.

Mike Reagan called it a complete team victory and praised all his players for their effort on the CFAR Post Game Show, Saturday night.

The Bombers looked to keep the momentum going the next night, when the home and home switched venues to the Mel Hegland Uniplex in Laronge. The Ice Wolves seemed to have the Bombers number after a pair of 5-2 victories in their last two contests.

This looked like a different Bomber team than what we have seen for most of December. Once again the Maroon and White came out and had a very effective first period and were up 2-0 after 1.

Crustopher Collin scored his team leading 15th of the year when he was left alone in the slot and buried a nice low shot past Merek Pipes to open the scoring. Ethan Daniels got credit for his 9th when he deflected a shot from Ben Lanfermann from the point with just over a minute remaining in the first period.

Flin Flon never looked back and they piled on the offense with 5 more goals to win the re-match handillly 7-3. Other goals came from Johnson, Marchi, Shumlanski, Hooper and Boots.

Laronge got their goals from Brewster, Smith and Lane.

Brenden Newton once again was great making a lot of timely saves,  especially early in the game. He stopped 26 out of 29, while the tandem of Pipes and Frey stopped 43 out of 50. Special teams were also in the Bombers favour going 2 for 7 on the PP, while the Wolves were 0 for 3.

The Bombers take the weekend set out scoring Laronge 11-4 and also have a modest three game winning streak heading into 2018. Flin Flon also have back to back road wins for the first time this season.

Most importantly, this will give Flin Flon a little more breathing room for the final playoff spot overall as they lead Laronge by 12 points and Yorkton by 9. Speaking of the Terriers they come to town for a pair of games this weekend, Friday and Saturday. 102 .9 CFAR and flinflononline.com will have Saturday's broadcast.

Like Mike Reagan pointed out,  they really need to beat the teams lower than them in the standings and seem to be getting more confidence with each win. This will be the first meeting of the season this weekend.

A couple more wins could change Reagan's mind as to what direction he wants to go January the 10th, and is very pleased that the team is getting more healthy and playing well.

A Happy New Year to Bomber fans everywhere and look forward to seeing you at the rink in 2018.