By James Brohm
Sioux Lookout, ON – For the second night in a row the Sioux Lookout Bombers came out firing on all cylinders. The Fort Frances Lakers were unable to contain the speedy and skilled home team. Depth of the Bombers lineup has been evident as 17 of the 18 skaters who have dressed in the series have at least one point.
Picking up right where they left off the night before, the Bombers got to work early. Less than three minutes into the game Cobe Delaney and Owen Cotter broke loose on an end zone 2 on 1. Cotter went to the backdoor and tapped a beautiful feed from Delany past Jack Orchard for the game’s first goal. At 8:30, Owen Riffel streaking in put a shot wide of the net but followed his shot, picked up the puck off the end boards and deposited it into the back of the net. Before the period was through, Jonah Smith netted two more for the Bombers for his third and fourth of the postseason. Jack Osmond was not very busy in the Bombers’ goal but stopped all 10 shots to give the Bombers a 4-0 lead heading into intermission.
The Bombers kept up the pace in the middle frame. First, Cedrik Robidoux put a laser shot past the blocker of Orchard who was screened by two of his own players at 11:08. Blake Burke scored the Bombers’ first power play goal of the game at 15:15, assisted by Alex Lucas and Nolan Palmer. Owen Riffel, on a 2 on 1 with Jonah Smith, elected to shoot and beat Jack Orchard high, glove-side for his second of the game. Looking to settle things down, Lakers’ head coach Tyler Miller called his 30 second timeout and used the time to swap Jack Orchard out for Lucas Toth in net. Back on the power play, Blake Burke redirected a backdoor pass from his twin brother Connor to put the Bombers up 8-0 at the end of 40 minutes of play.
As could be expected, the third period was relatively uneventful. The Lakers were looking to write off the game and regroup for game three back home. The Bombers were not wanting to pour salt in the Lakers’ wounds and potentially have the game get out of hand. The lone goal of the period was scored by Nolan Palmer at 16:27 on the power play. The final score was 9-0 in favour of the home team.
Bombers’ captain, Nolan palmer was the third star of the game with a four-point night. Owen Riffel, with his first two goals of the postseason was named second star. Leading the league with four goals in the playoffs, Jonah Smith was the game’s first star. The series now shifts to Fort Frances on Tuesday night where the Lakers will look to dig their way out of a two-game hole and the Bombers will be looking to put the Lakers on the ropes.