A busy 2016 for the Hapnot Collegiate basketball program.

The JV Kings and Queens will be in the Pas for a tournament January the 15^th and 16^th .

The SV Queens will be in Creighton January the 15^th and 16^th, and the SV Kings will be in Swan River the weekend of January the 15^th and 16^th.

Hapnot is hosting Senior Zones this year March the 4^th and 5^th.

Mike Reagan the Head Coach and GM of the Flin Flon Bombers was an assistant coach with Canada West at the World JR.A Challenge that just wrapped up in Cobourg Ontario.

Canada West defeated Russia 2-1 this past Saturday to capture their 4th Gold medal in the history of the 10 year tournament.

Mike Rean talks about the experiance and looks forward to 2016 with a surging Flin Flon Bomber hockey club.   You can hear that interview here:

The Kindersley Klippers are the only team to beat the Flin Flon Bombers in December, handing the Bombers a 4-1 setback last night at the West Central Events Centre.

Flin Flon will wrap up an incredible month in which they went 7-1, including big wins on the road in both Laronge and Battleford.

The Bombers took it to the Klippers 7-3 back on Thursday, and Kindersley were able to respond with 39 shots en route to their victory last night.

Kindersley scored a pair of goals in the second from former Bomber Austn Calladine and Cole Young. Young's goal did stand up as the game winner.

Chatterly put Kindersley up 3-0 early in the third, before Bomber captain Tyson Empey scored his 6th of the year to cut the lead at 3-1. Binfet would answer that on the power play and the Bombers couldn't get any closer and dropped their first game of the month 4-1.

Kindersley out shot the Bombers 39-25. The season series still favours Flin Flon at 3-2.

With the Bombers 7-1 run in December they have leap frogged Laronge for third in the Sherwood with 40 points, 3 more than the Ice Wolves who do have a game in hand.

Flin Flon are 4 points behind second place Nipawin and both teams have played 35 games.

There are lots of reasons for the Bombers success including the play of their number one line of Switzer, Kocur and Smith. All 3 are in the top ten in league scoring and have  combined  for 134 points and are one of the most feared trios in the league.

Goaltender Zac Robidoux continues his fine play and is ranked fourth in the league for his 2.59 gaa and .925 save %.

Secondary scoring is also starting to come from Foyle, Empey, Lesko and Shumlanski who all had big goals on this road trip.

The Bombers are now on their Christmas break, and will enjoy a 3 week layoff before kicking things off in the new year when they host Yorkton January the 5th.

Congratulations to the Bombers Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan who helped guide Canada West to a Gold Medal at the World JR.A Challenge in Cobourg Ontario on Saturday.

Reagan was an assistant Coach and has been with the team for the past month and is very excited about his first championship.

I will have an interview with Mike posted on my blog sometime tomorrow.

To Flin Flon Bomber fans everywhere Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, look forward to seeing you in 2016 and watching one of the most exciting teams in the league.

The Norman Northstars closed out 2015 dropping a pair of games to the Parkland Rangers this past weekend in Thompson.

Norman blew a 2-0 lead on Saturday and ended up losing 7-5.

Flin Flon's Ethan Stuckless was back in the lineup after a lengthy injury and scored 1 of the 5 goals.

Thiungs didn't go much better on Sunday, with Parkland picking up the 8-2 victory. Flin Flon's Tristan Galarneau had an assist.

Jonathon Faktor who just picked up player of the week, stopped 34 out of 39 shots for the victory on Saturday.

The Northstars will close out 2015 with a record of 3-25-0-2 and are now on the Christmas break and return to action in the new year when they host Central Plains January the 9th and 10th.

The Norman Midget Female Wild also wrapped up 2015 this past weekend, dropping a pair of games to the Eastman Selects.

The Wild played a couple of tight games losing 5-3 on Saturday and dropped a 2-1 decision in a shoot out Sunday.  Kerry Ann Sweeny from Thompson scored the Wild's only goal.

Congratulations to Flin Flon's Jonathon Faktor who was chosen as the Chicken Chef Manitoba AAA  Midget Hockey League player of the week.

Jonathon plays goal  for the Parkland Rangers and was solid winning both his starts this past weekend.

He stopped 29 out of 30 shots in beating the Southwest Cougars on Friday, and he followed that up with a 36 save performance against Pembina Valley on Sunday.

Faktor is on a real roll getting the Rangers back into a playoff spot, winning 5 of his last 6 starts.

The Norman Midget Female Wild will wrap up 2015 this weekend in Thompson.

Norman who are 2-8 on the season will host Central Plains this Saturday at 1:30 and 10 AM on Sunday.

There are two girls from Flin Flon on this year's team including Mackenzie McIntire and Indra Wood.

Reggie Leach the Riverton Rifle was in town this past weekend for his book signing at both the Flin Flon Public Library and the Whitney Forum prior to the Bomber, Mills game this Saturday.

We had a chance to sit down with Reggie and talked about the book, his days in the NHL and of course his time as a Flin Flon Bomber.

You can hear that interview here:

The 2015 Masters Curling Zone took place this past weekend in the Pas.

Congratulations to Flin Flon's Don Holmes on winning the Zone beating Sam Antilla from Thompson in the final.

Both Holmes and Antilla will represent the North at Provincials coming up in Winnipeg March the 9th  at the Thistle Curling Club.

I don't know if it was the fact that the Riverton Rifle was in the building or the fact that Melville had beaten the Bombers twice this season , but the Flin Flon Bombers may have played one of their best games in recent memory Saturday.

The first period might be the best I have ever seen the Bombers play as they stormed out to a 5-0 lead after 1 on goals from: Switzer, Masson, Shumlanski and 2 from Kocur.

Melville had no answer for the Bombers speed and Jamie Fiesel looked helpless on the Mills bench as Flin Flon absolutely took it to them.

The offense cooled off in the second with just 1 goal from Kocur who completed his hat-trick and also scored his team leading 20th of the season. Kocur streaked to the front  of the net and tapped in a nice pass from Switzer.

The no.1 line was impressive again combining for 12 points in the game, 4 each from Switzer, Kocur and Smith.

Kristian St.Onge added a short handed goal early in the third as Flin Flon took the game 7-0 for their 4th straight win and 8th in their last 10.

Zac Robidoux was back between the pipes and stopped all 35 shots fired in his direction and picked up his third shut out of the season.

With the win the Bombers improve to 15-12-0-4, good for 34 points and still trail Laronge by 3 points for third in the Sherwood and will head to Laronge to kick off a 4 game in 5 night road trip Wednesday.

It was great to welcome Bomber legend  Reggie Leach back to Flin Flon for his book signing this past weekend. The library was packed and some people had to wait hours in line but it was worth it to get a copy of his book and talk to a fine gentleman.

The book is dedicated to Reggie's grandchildren and contains lots of great stories about hockey both on and off the ice and is a must read. Reggie was overwhelmed by the response and sold way over 300 books and signed lots of other  memorobillia as well. He had blisters on his fingers Saturday night from signing so much stuff and he loved it.

The Bombers had a nice ceremony for Reggie before the game Saturday, in which Reggie dropped the puck and was presented with a Bomber jersey. We interviewed Reggie in the second intermission on 102.9 CFAR and talked a lot about his days in a Bomber uniform. I will upload that interview the next couple of days and post it here on my blog just in case you missed it.

Gary Childerhose and Chris Bortis continue to do a good job looking after the team while Mike Reagan is away for the World JR.A Challenge and won all 4 on their recent home stand.

Flin Flon will now hit the road for 4 games in 5 nights starting Wednesday in Laronge as they get set to close down 2015. No broadcasts on this trip as I am going to take some time to rest and get ready for a busy 2016.

I would like to take this time to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you at various rinks around the SJHL in the new year.

The Norman Wolves Bantam AAA hockey  team made up of players from all over Northern Manitoba including Flin Flon,  hosted the Winnipeg Hawks in a pair of games at the Sportex this past weekend.

The Wolves remain winless on the season dropping both games 7-0 Saturday and 7-2 Sunday. Goals were scored by Keithen Saunders of Thompson and Hunter Rambo of the Pas..

Flin Flon's Rylan Potkonjak made well over 30 saves in Sunday's game.

Norman will have 3 more games before the Christmas break, when they hit the road Friday in Portage, Saturday in Carmen and Sunday in Stonewall.

Creighton School hosted the Border Bash Boys Basketball Tournament this past weekend.

Fronteir out of Cranberry finished first going 4-0, beating Sandy Bay in the final.

Tisdale went 2-2, Creighton 1-3 and Norway House 0-4.

The SR Girls were in Birch Hills and went  1-1 in the round robin and ended up losing to Birch Hills 73-67 in playoffs and came fourth.

It was a very good showing for the Kodiaks who were playing the best teams in the province.

The Hapnot Kings and Queens were in the Pas for the Bill Mcdonald Memorial Basketball Tournament this past weekend.

The Queens won both their round robin games against The Pas and Elmwood and ended up losing to ST.John's Ravencourt  out of Winnipeg in the Final  to finish second.

The Kings battled injuries and ended up finishing 7th , losing to ST.Brieux and Elmwood, but did win their last game against Winnipegosis.

Both teams are now off til the new year.

The Flin Flon Bombers winners of 7 out of their last 10 games, will host Yorkton and Melville this weekend at the Whitney Forum in what will be their last 2 home games of 2015.

Flin Flon is fresh off scoring 14 goals this past weekend against Nipawin and Estevan and have fianally got their offense going after struggling to put the puck in the net for a good part of the season.

Secondary scoring is starting to come courtesy of Roach, Reitmeier, Lavallee and recently acquired Rylee Zimmer who picked up 2 goals last Saturday in just his second game as a Bomber.

Yorkton and Melville are 2 teams that have struggled this season and would both be on the outside looking in if the playoffs were to start tomorrow. The Terriers and Mills both have 19 points and really struggle to score. Melville is last in goals for with 83, and the Terriers are third from the bottom with 87.

The Bombers beat the Terriers in their only meeting of the season in a shoot out back on October the 16th. This was Flin Flon's first road win of the season. The Bombers have struggled against Melville dropping both games 6-4 in Melville October the 17th and they blew a two goal third period lead on October the 24th and lost 4-3 in a shoot out at the Whitney Forum.

If there is anything I have learned covering this league for the past 18 years is anyone can beat anyone on a given night,  and these games will be anything but easy for the Bombers who will be playing 2 desperate hockey teams.

This will be a special weekend with the Riverton Rifle Reggie Leach making his way back to Flin Flon this Saturday.  Reggie has a new book out " The Riverton Rifle , Straight Shooting On Hockey And Life".

There is a forward from Bobby Clarke and this is supposed to be a very good read. Reggie is getting a lot of praise for this book and it is being well received right across North America.

Reggie will have copies of his book at the library tomorrow starting at 11 and will also be at the Whitney Forum at 6 just before the Bombers face the Mills. If you have a sports fan on your Christmas list , this is a must read which contains some great stories from the Bomber days and his great NHL career.

We will have Reggie on our broadcast in the second intermission of tomorrow's game on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com

Congratulations to the Bombers Alex Smith and Josh Hayward on their selection of the week honors.

Smith had 6 points in 2 games last weekend to be named player of the week, and Hayward picked up 3 goals in 2 games to be named the top rookie.

Smith has vaulted into 5th spot in overall league scoring picking up 39 points in 29 games. He had a red hot November in which he picked up 17 points in 11 games and is one of the biggest reasons the Bombers are moving up the standings.

No broadcast tonight, but we will have the Saturday clash with Melville in what will be our final broadcast of 2015. We hit the air at 7:15 with the Murray GM Coach's Show, play by play at 7:30.

Creighton School will be hosting the Border Bash Basketball tournament this weekend, with teams taking part from Creighton, Sandy Bay, Tisdale, Norway House and Cranberry.

Action starts Friday and here is the schedule of games.

2PM- Creighton VS Cranberry

3:30 Sandy Bay VS Tisdale

5PM  Norway House VS Cranberry

6:30  Creighton VS Tisdale

8PM  Norway House VS Sandy Bay

Action will continue Saturday starting at 9 including a skills competition.

Congratulations to William Hatherly a SR Hapnot volleyball player who  was recognized for a great season last weekend in Swan River at Provincials.

Hatherly picked up 2 game star awards in their opening game against Calvin Christian, and again in the Quarter Finals against Dauphin.

Hatherly was also given the Players Choice Award which is voted on by all the players in the tournament and received a Provincial Graduating All Star Award which is handed out to only 6 players in the province.

There are a number of universities who are showing interest, and Hatherly is expected to sign some where soon. We will have more details later this week.

The Flin Flon Bombers exploded for 14 goals and picked up back to back wins over Estevan and Nipawin this past weekend.

The Maroon and White looked good Friday taking it to division rival Nipawin 6-0 on the strength of 2 Joel Kocur goals to give him a team leading 17 on the year. Hayward also scored a pair with other goals coming from Switzer and ST.Onge.

The Bombers have now out scored the Hawks 10-0 in the last 2 meetings and are just 6 points behind them for second in the Sherwood and have 2 games in hand. Zac Robidoux stopped all 32 shots for his second straight shut out of the Hawks. Robidoux is off to Leduc to try and grab a spot for Canada West and is one of 7 SJHL players trying to make the team.

Mike Reagan will be the assistant coach for the event which will take place in Ontario next month.

Flin Flon continued their dominance over Estevan beating them for the third time this season 8-3 on Saturday.

The Bruins looked good taking a 1-0 lead after 1 on a goal by Laclare who fired his 12th past Brenden Newton on the PP at 11:50.

It was all Flin Flon after that as they scored 4 goals in the second from Lesko, Smith and 2 from new comer Rylee Zimmer, playing just his second game in a Bomber uniform. The Bombers would also add 4 more in the third from Reitmeier, Lavallee, Switzer and Hayward.

The Bruins would get a couple more goals from Paxman and Deroose, but took way too many penaltys including a match from Deroose late in the game.

After the weekend the Bomber record stands at: 13-12-0-4 and have won 7 out of their last 10 and are above.500 for the first time this season. This was the goal from the Bomber coaching staff heading into the weekend.

The Bombers are also chasing down Laronge for third in the division and are only 3 points behind the Ice Wolves, and both teams have played 29 games.

After the two game explosion, Flin Flon becomes the 5th team in the league to hit 100 goals and all of a sudden are ranked 5th in the league in goals for and are having a fun time filling the back of the net. They have struggled all season to score, but are starting to get secondary scoring and are slowly starting to become a legitimate contender again.

It was nice to see Brenden Newton have a strong game Saturday picking up his third win of the season and has his save % back to over 900 at .908. Newton has had a tough time getting starts with the strong play of Robidoux.

The homestand will continue this weekend with the Bombers welcoming Yorkton and Melville to town this Friday and Saturday. 102.9 CFAR will have the broadcast of Saturday's game.

The Norman Northstars wrapped up a 3 game road trip on Sunday losing to Parkland 6-3.

Flin Flon's Jonathon Faktor stopped 24 out of 27 shots to pick up the victory for the Rangers. In other games this weekend the Northstars lost a close one to Brandon 3-2 in OT  on Friday and dropped a 6-4 decision to Yellowhead Saturday.

Flin Flon's Jeremy Dutcawich played a good game Saturday, stopping 34 out of 40 shots while Tristan Galarneau picked up 2 goals and an assist in the 3 games.

Norman's record is: 3-21-0-2 and they are still looking for their first road win of the season.

The Northstars return home to host  the Winnipeg Wild this weekend.

The Mel Pearson Novice hockey tournament wrapped up at both the Sportex and Whitney Forum Sunday.

Here are the complete results:

A-Final ( Mel Pearson Event)

Swan River 4

The Pas White-2

B-Final( Jack Turner Event)

Norway House-9

OCN- 2

C-Final( Scott Davidson event)

Thompson Kings- 7

Thompson Flyers-3

D-Final ( Paddy Ginnell Event)

Thompson Wild 10

FF Fireman 4

E-Event ( Cementation)

FF McKeens 6

Pas Red 4

F-Event (Shayne Pearson)

Thompson Canadians 5

FF Oldtimers 1

G-Event ( FF Bombers)

FF Reliance 12

Snow Lake 3

The Norman SR Men's qualifier wrapped up today at the Uptown Curling Club with Sam Antilla from Thompson  defeating Flin Flon's  Keenan Kennedy in the final in 4 ends.

4 rinks took part with Antilla finishing 3-1, Kennedy  2-2, Holmes  2-1 and McCluckie  0-2.

Antilla will now move on to the SR Provincials in FT.Rouge in Winnipeg starting in February.

After a 6 day break the Flin Flon Bombers hit the ice twice this weekend , when they entertain Nipawin and Estevan .

Flin Flon stands at : 11-12-0-4, 26 points and sit 7 behind Laronge for third and 8 points behind second place Nipawin in the Sherwood Division.

This will be the Bombers third meeting of the season with the Hawks, with Flin Flon winning the last meeting 4-0 in Nipawin November the 17th. Nipawin took the first 2 meetings to open up the season on opening weekend.

The Bombers are 2-0 against the Bruins so far including a 3-2 win last Thursday.

Flin Flon was busy on cut down day this past Tuesday adding Rylee Zimmer from WayWay of the MJHL, with the Bombers flipping Landon Gross to the Wolverines, who the Bombers obtained earlier in the day from Kindersley for defensman Holden Daley.

Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan says Zimmer is excited to be a Bomber and will be in the lineup tonight.

After a bit of a slump earlier in November the Hawks seem to be back on track and are 5-5 in their last 10 and have won 2 in a row. They have made a lot of changes since the Bombers saw them last and always play a good team game with Doug Johnston at the helm.

Nipawin made 4 deals on cut down day including trading Ellliot Peterson to Whitecourt for Jordan Davies. It seems like a lot of teams like to trade with Whitecourt, who have built a  bit of a revolving door. The big trade saw them move leading scorer Kriss Spriggs to Lloydminster of the AJHL.

This will be the final weekend before Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan heads off to Calgary for tryouts for team West at the World JR. A Challenge. 7 SJHL players  will be given the opportunity to make the team including 19 year old Zac Robidoux of the Bombers who was the only goalie chosen to represent his league. Robidoux is 9-7-3-1 on the season with a gaa of 2.83 and a save % of .918.

I was a bit disappointed that Alex Smith wasn't chosen as the player of the month. Alex had 17 points in November and is one of the big reasons the Bombers are playing a lot better hockey. Hard to argue with Travis Mayan though, he had a huge month as well including 21 points in 9 games and continues to lead the SJHL with 27 goals and 51 points.

Don't forget to bring donations for the S.P.C.A . this weekend including food and cleaning supplies and you will have a chance to win some prizes courtesy of Candle Lake Golf Resort.

You can catch both games on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com this weekend including tonight's game with the Hawks starting with the Murray GM Coach's Show at 7:15.

The first Flin Flon Minor Hockey Tournament of the year,  is taking place this weekend at both the Whitney Forum and Sportex.

It will be the Mel Pearson Memorial Hockey Tournament with teams taking part from all over the North including Flin Flon, The Pas, OCN, Thompson, Snow Lake, Norway House and Swan River.

Here is the complete schedule for the weekend:

The Norman SR Mens Regional qualifier will take place this weekend at the Uptown Curling Club.

4 rinks will compete including Doug Salahub, Don Holmes and  Grant McCluckie from Flin Flon. Sam Antilla will be the lone rink from Thompson.

Draws take place this Saturday at 10,3 and 6PM, Sunday at 10 and 2 if necessary.

The winner moves on to SR Provincials in FT.Rouge, Winnipeg in February.

courtesy of bombers.ca

Just a head of the December 1st roster cut down day, Head Coach and General Manager Mike Reagan is proud to announce that the team has acquired 1997 born forward Rylee Zimmer (Russell, MB) from the Waywayseecappo Wolverines of the MJHL in exchange for the CJHL playing rights of Landon Gross (Pincher Creek, AB)

The team made the deal after Flin Flon acquired Gross from the Kindersley Klippers of the SJHL for 1996 born Holden Daley (Sherwood Park, AB).

“Zimmer is a kid that we’ve been looking at for quite some time now,” commented Reagan.  “I was really impressed with him last year at the Team West camp last season for the World Junior A Challenge.  He brings a great skill set to this club.”

This season with the Wolverines, Zimmer has 12 points (1g, 11a) in 14 games.  Last year he had 36 points (10g, 26a) in 34 games which was good enough to make him a finalist for the MJHL Rookie of the Year.

 After being drafted by the Regina Pats in the 5th round in 2012, Zimmer suited up for 44 games with the Pats in 2013-14.

“He’s going to add another offensive threat to our lineup,” added Reagan.

“Landon (Gross) we felt didn’t fit into the makeup of our team this season,” said Reagan on the 19 year old and why he didn’t keep him. 

Kindersley gets the gritty young defenseman they needed this season in Daley.  Daley was acquired by the Bombers from the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the AJHL earlier this season and In 20 games with Flin Flon he had 4 assists and 58 penalty minutes. 

“Kindersley needed help on the blue line, we needed another young offensive weapon, and it worked out for everyone.”

Zimmer should be in Flin Flon today and will suit up this weekend when the Bombers host the Nipawin Hawks on Friday night.