The Nipawin Hawks travelled to Flin Flon Wednesday for a midweek matchup at the Whitney Forum. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Woes at the Whit

Hawks can’t solve Bombers in Flin Flon

Jan 9, 2025 | 2:54 PM

The Nipawin Hawks struggles against the Bombers continued Wednesday in Flin Flon with a 9-2 loss at the Whitney Forum.

Trying to snap a 16 game losing streak versus one of their Sher-Wood Division rivals, the first period was relatively even. The Bombers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first before Konnor Watson cut the lead in half with his sixth goal of his Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) career. The Hawks were unable to contain the momentum in the second period, Flin Flon scored 16 seconds in the frame, four more times before the middle stanza concluded before cruising to the win.

“I thought we started very, very slow but we get one back and we head to the locker room trailing by one, they had a couple chances to get up a few more. We battled back but in the second and third period we stood around and watched them do whatever they wanted,” Head Coach Tad Kozun said on the postgame show of Nipawin Chrysler Dodge Hawks Hockey on 750 Beach Radio.

Rookie forward Will Whitter had the Hawks second goal of the game in the third period.

Nathan Claydon started in goal, he was mercifully pulled after giving up six of the nine goals, Gage Roberts was solid in relief.

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This current group of Hawks will host Flin Flon twice more at the Centennial Arena, but don’t have to return to northern Manitoba until next year. With a large amount of players eligible to return and still competing this year, Kozun said the team needs to find a way to compete with the three-time league runners-up.

“We have to, the thing is you can’t just say it’s four losses on the year, something has to change” Kozun quipped. “We didn’t execute our gameplan at all. I thought it was a really good plan we came up with, but we didn’t execute it at all.”

The Hawks are winless in 2025 and haven’t picked up a victory since Dec. 13 in La Ronge.

Nipawin will look to regroup on the road in Kindersley starting with a matchup Saturday against the Klippers followed but a Sunday afternoon game to conclude the weekend at Inter Pipeline Arena. Kozun said it’s time to recharge for the weekend out West.

“We will watch the video, fix the breakdowns we had tonight. We’ve got to get to the middle of the ice, we need to break than down and we have to be ready to go for Saturday,” he concluded.

Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be broadcasted starting with the pregame show 15 minutes ahead of puck drop.