After splitting games 3 and 4 at the Whitney Forum, I didn't know what to expect heading back to the Cage for game 5 last night.
Taylor Balog opened up the scoring for the Hawks 11:11 into the first to give his team the lead after 1. The Bombers outshot the Hawks 13-10 in the first but Nipawin did a nice job keeping most of the shots to the outside.
Flin Flon came out and played their best period of the series in the second scoring 6 unanswered goals to blow the game open and chase Davis Jones from the net for the second time in the last 3 games.
Brett Boehm had a monster game returning to the lineup after missing game 4 with the flu to pick up 3 points including his first and second of the series.
Other Bomber goal scorers were: Roach(4), Litke(2), McCombie(2), Wark(2) and Robinson who scored his first.
The Bomber powerplay got a lot of practise going 3 for 8 with the Hawks racking up more than 95 min in penalties and spent almost the second half of the game in the box.
The Hawks took exception to Litke's hit on Datoff and let the wheels come off after that point.
Balog challenged Litke and after they went at it Litke was ejected from the game for his hit from behind. I thought that would end it , but the Hawks had other ideas and basically ran after the Bombers the rest of the night.
I thought Mike Reagan's squad handled themselves with lots of poise and class and were not interested in taking part in what seemed to be a scene from a Slapshot movie.
The most important thing is the Bombers are up 3-2 and can close out the series on Sat night in front of the Whitney Forum faithful.
I think it is safe to say that Flin Flon does not want to get on the bus and go back to Nipawin for game 7. I don't care how good the popcorn is.
A good contingent of Bomber fans made it to Nipawin last night and have done an outstanding job being the extra man for the Bombers in this series.
We will be back on the air at 7:15 tomorrow with your Murray GM Coach's Show and drop of the puck at 7:30.
I have no idea what to expect for tomorrow but I think that is one of the reasons why this series has been so much fun.
See you tomorrow and let's make lots of noise!!!!
