David Dykstra did all the damage for the Flin Flon Bombers in their Thompson exhibition match against the OCN Blizzard Sept. 5, scoring his third goal of the game with 1:20 left in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and give his team a victory after they trailed or were tied for the first 58:40.
Dykstra's hat trick marker was scored on a shot upstairs from the edge of the crease after Ben Bitz fed him a pass from the side boards just moments after a Blizzard penalty had elapsed.
The tally was his second of the final frame after he tied the game 2-2 with a goal about eight minutes into the period.
His first goal game early in the second period when he redirected a shot from the point by Matty Lecours to tie the game at a goal apiece.
OCN's Zeanan Buternowski opened the scoring in the first 10 minutes of the opening period, the only scoring in a fast-flowing and hard-hitting affair that drew several oohs and aahs from the 480 fans in attendance as bodies hit the ice and the boards from crushing bodychecks.
The physical play erupted in a fight shortly after Dykstra's first goal, as the Blizzard's Kent Sauter and Flin Flon's Lane Wagner duked it out near centre ice, landing sporadic blows in an extended battle that saw both players stay on their feet until the linesmen broke it up.
OCN re-established a one-goal lead before the third period, as T.J. Constant picked up a puck in the slot and outwaited Bombers' goalie Matt Weninger to deposit a backhander in the net.
Flin Flon nearly evened things up in the last minute but OCN goaltender David Aime fell on the puck in the crease to send his team to the last 20 minutes with the lead despite their having been outshot 14-8 in the middle frame.
The meeting was the second in two nights for the Northern Manitoba squads, which play in separate leagues, the Bombers part of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and the Blizzard competing in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. Their first scheduled pre-season meeting, Sept. 2 in OCN, was postponed due to an ice plant problem in the Gordon Lathlin Memorial Centre on Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
About five hundred home fans in Flin Flon saw their beloved Bombers trounce the Blizzard 8-1 in the Whitney Forum Sept. 4.
Several ex-Norman Northstars and one who is on this year's pre-season roster skated in Saturday's exhibition game. Tanner Korchinski and Brennan Cox were on the ice for the Bombers, while Jaron Campbell, who played for the Northstars last year and remains on their roster, laced his skates up for OCN. Cross Lake's Dougie McLeod did not dress for the Bombers.
