The Flin Flon Bombers were able to prevail against the Northern Manitoba Blizzard in a very entertaining game Sunday afternoon at the Whitney Forum, by a score of 2 to 1 in OT.
It was the first pre season game for the Maroon and White who just wrapped up Main Camp on Saturday, while this was the fourth pre season game for the Blizzard.
Specialty teams were a big part of the story on Sunday with Flin Flon killing off 6 of 7 Blizzard powerplays on the afternoon.
The only blemish was a late first period powerplay goal from John Adlys, who was able to sneak a shot from the blue-line which fooled a screened Noah Martin.
The Bombers answered less than three minutes later, when Carter Stamp Vincent tapped home a beautiful pass from Luca Martyniuk when he was left alone in front of the Blizzard net.
This was a huge goal for Flin Flon who were able to covert on their only powerplay chance in the game.
The game remain deadlocked at 1 the rest of the afternoon and wouldn't be decided til the OT period.
Northern Manitoba had a great chance to end it as they had a 4 on 3 powerplay heading into the extra period, but once again the Flin Flon penalty kill did the job.
The Bombers converted on their first chance after killing the penalty when Ben Shaw was left alone in front of the Blizzard net and he banged home a perfect pass from Brendan Phelps.
It was the Bombers only shot in Over Time and they made it count.
All 4 goalies played well with the Bomber tandem of Noah Martin and Josh Wu combining for 33 saves on 34 shots. The Blizzard duo of Carter krahn and Alex Jones ended up with 30 saves on 32 shots.
It was a great way for Flin Flon to start the pre season with the lineup made up of all rookies. The Blizzard played a couple of vets, but went with a pretty young lineup as well and saw their pre season record fall to 2-2.
This was the first coaching win for new Bomber bench boss Cole McCaig who was brought back to take over for long time Coach Mike Reagan who has moved on to the WHL.
A busy week for Flin Flon as they will now play 4 games in 5 days including a trip to Laronge on Monday. The Wolves are in Flin Flon Tuesday, before a home and home with the Blizzard to close out the pre season on Thursday and Friday.
You will be able to listen to Friday's final pre season game on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com beginning with the Pre Game Show at 7:15 and drop of the puck at 7:30pm.
Then it all starts for real with the Bombers off to Laronge to kick off the regular season on Friday September the 18th before the Home Opener to kick off the Hall Of Fame Weekend on Friday September the 25th.
