Bombers struggle to score against Miners

SIOUX LOOKOUT — The Sioux Lookout Bombers have not found the offensive production that they need to win hockey games so far this season. None of Sioux Lookout’s skaters have cracked the league’s top 20. They have also given up an average of 3.1  goals per game to start the season, and given up the first goal in six of the first nine games.

It only took four minutes for the Miners to strike gold in the first period. An offensive zone faceoff win by Corbyn Demchuk was drawn back to former Bomber, Nathan Dann. He quickly moved to the centre of the ice and his perfectly placed shot beat Matthew Spencer-Dahl on the glove side. Although the Bombers had several grade-A chances and some scrambles in front of Red Lake netminder, Trent Boryszczuk they were unable to bury the biscuit. Landon van Engelen scored a 13:51 on an odd-man rush to give the Miners a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission. 

The Miners came out hot to start the second and after a solid two minutes of O-zone time, Bryson Carlyle sifted a shot through a sea of bodies to put the Miners up 3-0 early in the frame. Sioux Lookout’s first goal of the game came on the powerplay at 15:23. Garren Voisey put a point shot on net and Owen Riffel chipped in the rebound for this first goal of the season.

The physicality of the game ramped up in the third period. Both teams were finishing hard checks on almost every play and scrambles in front of both nets typically turned into scrums. At 12:16 of the third period tensions boiled over as Trent Boryszczuk took a swipe at Owen Riffel with his stick after a tight play out front of the net. A melee ensued resulting in a total of 18 penalty minutes including fighting majors and game misconducts to Riffel for the Bombers and Gabe Tanton for the Miners. Bryson Carlyle scored his second of the game on the powerplay at 17:29 to give the Miners a 4-1 lead that they would hold on to for the remainder of the game.

The game’s third star was Landon van Engelen, who’s first period goal ended up being the game winner. Owen Riffel was the second star, finally getting the monkey off his back. The first star was awarded to Nathan Dann with a goal and two assists in the game.

The Bombers and Miners are back at the Hangar in Sioux Lookout for game two of the weekend series on Saturday night.

Check out our video recap on our YouTube channel.