Bombers Win Ugly

The bad news for the Bomber Hockey Club is they played perhaps their worst two periods of hockey on Wednesday night. The good news is they came out with a 7-6 shootout win over the Red Dogs despite their struggles. And its often said that if you can win on nights you are not playing your best then your team may have something special going for them.

Bomber goalie Josh Burke could only comment "Did we really just win that game?" after allowing 6 goals on the evening, some by his own admission he would like to have back. But Burke battled for the win the entire game and when the Red Dogs had a shorthanded breakaway chance with the scored tied late he came up with the big stop. He also stopped all shooters in the shootout to earn the Bombers their 15 victory of the season.

The Bombers looked lackluster against a Red Dog team that had played the night before and was well below them in the standings. After 2 periods the Bombers were looking up at a 6-3 deficit. The third period started well though with Bill Auld scoring off a Rober' Auld to Tony D'anna play just 32 seconds into the period. Neil Van Der Horn also provided a spark taking a more agressive approach to the blueline philosphy, forcing pucks up and out of the zone with an authority the organazation had missed in the prior two stanzas.

Mike Gilbert, Jr made his presence known scoring the eventual game tieing goal off a nice feed from a returning Jean Eric Hoyer' with 5:35 remaining in the final period. Junior had 2 goals and 2 assists on the evening and his line with Hoyer' and Lupe Poltarak scored 5 of the Bombers six tallies. Hoyer' also was the lone goal scoring in the shootout.

With the win the Bombers finished 3rd in the final regular season standings. The matchup pits them agains the Admirals in the first round of the double elimination playoffs- a team that has given the Bombers fits in the regular season.

4 game packs of tickets are available for this season's playoff run. Contact the BSA box office for details.

State Electric Power Performers of the Game

First Star: Mike Gilbert, Jr 2g 2a


Second Star: Jean Eric Hoyer' 2g 2a


Third Star: Neil Van Der Horn

Bomber Box Score:

Goals:
Hoyer' (29,30)
Junior (17,18)
B.Auld (24)
Poltorak (16)

Assists:
Junior-2
Hoyer'-2
Rober'
D'anna
Smith

Game Notes:

The Bombers were happy to welcome back "Sarge" Dave Smith who had missed 8 of the previous 9 games keeping our streets safe.

The Bombers finished the regular season as the league's highest scoring team with 127 goals.