The Flin Flon Bombers put in another solid effort and powered to their 12th victory of the season, with a 4-0 shut-out of the league's top club, the Kindersley Klippers last night at the Whitney Forum.
It was another shut-out for new Bomber goaltender Adam Beukeboom who stopped all 36 shots fired in his direction and has yet to give up a single goal since coming over from Grand Prairie of the AJHL.
Beukeboom was quick to point out after last night's win that it has been a complete team effort. "It is nice to have a fantastick team in front of me . A shut out is a team stat, not a goalie stat and I think people look to much into that. I make the first save and the boys clear every single puck, and they are actually making things a lot easier for me."
Beukeboom has stopped all 57 shots fired in his direction and is the first Bomber goaltender to my recollection to pick up back to back shut-outs in his first two career starts. What a great start with his new team.
The Bombers opened up the scoring at: 15:58 of the opening period when Austn Calladine banged in a re-bound on the powerplay for his 8th of the season. That would stand up as the game winner with insurance goals coming from: Knaub(4), Lishchynski(3) and Calladine's second of the night into an empty net late in the third period.
It was a very important win for Flin Flon, especially with Melfort beating Melville last night 2-1. The Bombers remain 4 points behind the Mustangs with 2 games in hand for first place in the Sherwood Division. This is also good momentum for the two game road trip coming this weekend, with stops in Melville Saturday and a big Divisional show down with Nipawin on Sunday.
This is the first time the Bombers will see the Hawks since opening weekend, and Nipawin is playing great hockey going 6-3-0-1 in their last ten games. Flin Flon leads the Hawks by 3 points for second in the Sherwood and this should feel like a playoff atmosphere Sunday at the cage.
Mike Reagan was very happy with his team's solid effort against a very talented team. " I was very happy with the team effort. I thought our forecheck was very good, our defense did a really good job standing them up at the red line and we didn't give up our zone easilly. When we did we kept everything to the outside and I thought our defense did a really good job picking up sticks and eliminating second and third chances."
The Bombers improve to: 12-3-3-3, good for 30 points and second in the Sherwood with a couple games in hand on Melfort and are:7-1-2 in their last 10.
Flin Flon's home record is : 7-1-2-1, third best in the SJHL.
The Bombers will enjoy a couple days off before hitting the road for two this weekend including Melville on Saturday and a 6PM game in Nipawin Sunday. Both games broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.
