The Nipawin Hawks faced off against the Flin Flon Friday in SJHL action that the Bombers won 4-3. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Friday Fight in Flin Flon

Bombers explode in third to hold off Hawks

Mar 4, 2023 | 1:19 PM

The Nipawin Hawks will have to scoreboard watch on Saturday to see if the team is returning to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) playoffs in a couple of weeks.

Nipawin was in Flin Flon Friday with a chance to officially punch their ticket to the postseason, but the Bombers defeated the Hawks 4-3 at the Whitney Forum in the sixth and final meeting of the year between the teams.

The Hawks took an early lead courtesy F.X. Bedard’s 10th goal of the year not even two minutes into the first period. The lead stood until the final couple seconds of the middle period, Flin Flon bounced a point shot past Damon Cunningham to tie the score at 1-1 with just 1.8 seconds left in the period. Hawks Head Coach Tad Kozun said that goal changed the outcome.

“I really liked our game up until the end of the second period when they scored that goal,” Kozun quipped on the postgame show of Rona Nipawin Hawks Hockey.

The Bombers used their new-found energy, scored three goals in the third to open a 4-1 lead.

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Nipawin battled back but essentially ran out of time. Tre Fouquette slapped his second goal of the season past Harmon Laser-Hume with five minutes left, and Carson Dobson added his 18^th goal of the season with 10 seconds left to play. Kozun said the team is battling right until the end but taking too many lapses at other points of late.

“I am proud of these guys for never quitting but we can make life a whole lot easier on ourselves if we play a full 60 minutes,” he said.

Laser-Hume finished with 28 saves in the win, Cunningham stopped 37 shots in the loss.

The Hawks can clinch a playoff spot with a Notre Dame loss in Estevan on Saturday.

Kozun said the mindset for the team going into Sunday’s matinee at the Northern Lights Palace against the Mustangs in Melfort is focus on themselves and punch their own ticket to the postseason.

“We still haven’t clinched a playoff spot, so that’s our number one goal, we need to string together some wins. We can’t just hand in the towel because we think we’re in, we’re not,” Kozun stated.

Sunday’s game will face-off at 3 p.m., and the Mustangs are offering free admission.

The game will be broadcasted on 750 Beach Radio beginning at 2:45 p.m.

Nipawin travels to North Battleford Tuesday and will close the regular season on Friday, March 10 at home against Melfort.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @ClarkStork

by Clark Stork

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Bombers explode in third to hold off Hawks

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