Nipawin celebrates their second straight win over Flin Flon at the Centennial Arena Tuesday in SJHL action. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Dropping the bomb

Hawks beat Flin Flon in overtime

Mar 12, 2025 | 12:48 PM

The Hawks have two straight wins over the Flin Flon Bombers after a 5-4 overtime victory Tuesday in Nipawin.

On Feb. 4, Nipawin snapped a 17-game losing streak to the Bombers with a 3-0 win. Tuesday’s triumph was much tighter with the Hawks allowing three third-period goals by the visitors to force overtime before Will Whitter scored his second winning goal in extra time and 12th of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season with just eight seconds remaining.

Mason Karakochuk scored his 21^st goal of the season in the win in the first period. The 18-year-old said the Hawks gave up a lead in the third but still managed to take down the league’s second-ranked club.

“Our first period was amazing,” he said after the game. “I thought our second we laid back a little bit, the third we got up by three and let them back in the game again but in the end, we got the job done and that’s all that matters.”

Rookie forward Van Taylor scored his fifth goal of the season to open the scoring, Nipawin had a 2-0 lead after the first period. The teams traded second-period goals; Nipawin’s Konnor Watson jammed his 10th goal of the year past Kenneth Marquart.

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Ashton Tait slapped his 11th of the campaign past Marquart in the third giving the Hawks a 4-1 lead that eventually evaporated. Karakochuk said snagging another win against the Bombers after years of struggles was positive for the group.

“It’s huge, if I was the Bombers I would be scared to play us in the first round. I think we have come a long ways in the second half of the season. I think we are building and moving forward, watch out for us,” he said.

Karakochuk added an assist in the win and also was ejected for an early third period fight with 20-year-old Flin Flon captain Cole Tanchuk. Karakochuk said his first career fighting major was a heat of the moment incident within a game of rivals.

“I want to do anything to help the guys win a game and it just kind of happened, it was in the moment. I wanted to be out there as much as I was watching. I tried to keep the boys going and they got it done,” he said.

Nipawin has won seven of their last 10 games and reached the 40 point plateau after a tough first half to the year. The Hawks close the season Friday at home against Humboldt. Karakochuk said the team will give it their all in front of the fans at the ‘Cage.’

“We want our crowd to be happy,” he continued. “We haven’t had a lot of high points this year, but it’s coming along. Our crowd means a lot to us, and we want to send it off in a good way.”

Faceoff is 7 p.m. on Friday.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com