Nipawin's Rylan Lefebvre digs in for a faceoff against Flin Flon's Drew Kuzma Wednesday at the Whitney Forum. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Hawks Hockey

Hawks grounded in loss at Flin Flon

Feb 24, 2022 | 1:05 PM

The Hawks battled back from an early deficit Wednesday in Flin Flon, but four unanswered goals by the Bombers was too much to overcome for Nipawin in a 6-2 loss.

Nipawin has two victories at the Whitney Forum this season and is playing their best hockey of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season but riding a four-game losing streak, including a loss to the Hawks the Bombers wouldn’t be denied the win.

Flin Flon opened a 2-0 lead in the first period before Rylan Lefebvre cut the lead in half with his eighth goal of the season before the first intermission. The Hawks tied the game at 2-2 early in the second period on Joel Mabin’s 10^th goal of his rookie season.

The Bombers answered shortly thereafter with a powerplay goal, Flin Flon added another two goals before the buzzer sounded in the second making the lead 5-2. The home team capped the scoring with their fifth goal in the third. Hawks Head Coach Tad Kozun said his team just didn’t have the compete level to know off the Bombers.

“It was just a night we didn’t have it,” he said on the postgame show. “We will regroup tomorrow, that’s all you can say is we just didn’t have it. We just didn’t have that jam, I guess I’d call it spunk to take over the game.”

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The key to Flin Flon’s success this season and third-place position in the standings has been the play of their defenceman and the ability to generate offence. In the Hawks’ 4-2 win on Feb. 15 in Flin Flon Nipawin controlled that aspect of the game. On Wednesday Kozun said his team got away from that strategy.

“We gave up a tonne of shots, that means we’re not doing our jobs. When you are giving up 20 shots a period it means you’re not doing your job and you’re not willing to defend and that’s a commitment you have to make. We didn’t take away their time and space and when you don’t do that against a team like Flin Flon they are going to score goals,” Kozun said.

Harmon Laser-Hume got the start for Nipawin looking for his third win in a row, the 18-year-old was named the SJHL MVP of the week earlier in the day for his work in two victories last week. Laser-Hume allowed five goals on 32 shots before being pulled for Chase Hamm. Hamm stopped eight of nine shots he faced. Ben Montgomery picked up the win for Flin Flon.

Nipawin will now prepare for a four-game home stand that starts Friday against Notre Dame. On Sunday the Hawks will host Yorkton. Flin Flon visits one more time before a game against Melfort on March 4 closes the regular season home schedule.

Friday’s game is a 7:30 p.m. faceoff.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @ClarkStork