It was a very good Thanksgiving weekend for the Flin Flon Bombers.
After a 4 game in 5 night road trip down south to kick off the month, the Bombers finally returned to the Whitney Forum to play just their second and third home games of the season.
Flin Flon welcomed their southern rivals the Estevan Bruins to town for a pair of games. The Bombers beat the Bruins in their own building just the week before so they were familiar with what the Bruins would throw at them.
Estevan came in with only one win on the season , but Head Coach Cole McCaig was quick to point out that the Bombers would not take the Bruins lightly.
The Bruins came out on Friday and were given some glorious chances with some Bomber defensive miscues, but Estevan couldn’t get a puck past Bomber netminder Finn Werner.
Werner stopped three partial break- aways and Flin Flon would score a goal late in the opening period when new comer Seth Castronuovo got in alone on the Bruins netminder Dylan Adams and scored a highlight reel goal.
Castronuovo was able to take advantage of a nice pass from Jared Bigelow and he raced to the net and scored with a nice shot just under the cross bar.
That stood up as the game winner as The Bombers would get insurance goals from Dylan Carron, Ryder Mucha, Rhett Ewen and Huson Brehaut for the convincing 5 to 0 victory.
Finn Werner was rock solid and ended up stopping all 24 shots fired in his direction. Estevan goaltender Dylan Adams also played well and he ended up with 33 saves on 38 shots.
The Bombers entered the game with the league’s best powerplay and it was good again going 2 for 3 while the Bruins were 0 for 3.
These two teams would meet again the next night, and this time it was the Bombers who would have the good opening period.
Kai Bridgeman, Kyle Marsden and Jared Bigelow all Defensemen, each scored their first goal of the season to put the Bombers up 3 to 0 after one.
It looked like the Bombers were on their way with Hudson Brehaut scoring a pair of goals to give him 5 on the season and put Flin Flon up 5 to 1 after two.
The Bruins finally got on the board when Griffin Horne got to the top of the slot to beat Finn Werner, with a nice snap shot low stick side.
I give Estevan a lot of credit, they came out and made a really good push in the third period.
They got rewarded with a couple of goals from Shea Rollason and Jaren Ashbee and were able to cut the deficit to 5 to 3 with over eight minutes remaining in regulation.
The Bruins also got awarded a late powerplay and were able to pull their goalie and had a 6 on 4 advantage. Once again Finn Werner stood tall and was able to keep the Bruins at bay the rest of the way, stopping everything fired in his direction.
Flin Flon scored a goal late into the empty net courtesy of Eli Heroux and that would make the final 6 to 3 for Flin Flon.
Final shots were 31 to 30 in Estevan’s favour with the Bombers going 1 for 5 on the powerplay and Estevan finished 0 for 5.
A great weekend once again for the Bomber netminder Finn Werner who is now 6-2 on the season with a 1.70 GAA and very impressive Save % of .939.
Head Coach Cole McCaig thought his team was fortunate to get the two points on Saturday night. “ Tonight I thought we got off to a really good start getting out to a 3 to 0 lead early, but got worse as the night went on. We took advantage of some mistakes early, but just coasted after that and sat on the lead. For us to have just two shots at the Media Time Out in the third period, I told the guys we usually average 40 shots a night at the Whitney Forum. We got away from playing Bomber Hockey early in the game in my opinion and didn’t play with enough urgency or passion.”
The Bombers did find a way to get it done and now sit 6-2 on the season which is first place in the UPL Division and tied for second overall.
Flin Flon will get a couple of stiff tests this weekend with the Melfort Mustangs coming to town on Friday. Melfort is tied with the Bombers for second overall and were the only team to beat them at the Whitney Forum last year in the regular season.
Saturday, the Bombers will face the Yorkton Terriers in a rematch of this past Spring’s Canterra Seeds Cup Championship Final.
Game time is 7:30 pm both night’s at the Whitney Forum.
