BARRHEAD - The Barrhead Bombers are still looking for their first win of the new season.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, the Bombers were defeated 9-4 by the Calgary Amp Warriors at home. The loss was the seventh of the season for the club, putting them in the Canadian-American Junior Hockey League (CAJHL) basement with one point (an overtime loss to the Warriors in the Bombers' home opener).
After the end of the first period, Calgary led 3-0 and outshot the home team 27-11.
In the second frame, it did not take long for the Warriors to extend their lead, scoring a minute-and-a-half into the period. Unfortunately, a few moments later, the Bombers had an opportunity to cut into the lead when Travis Gullion failed to connect on a one-timer from a pass from defenceman Keaton Cal who joined the team on the forecheck and recovered the puck from the corner to the right of the net.
However, Guillion would redeem himself by scoring an unassisted marker at roughly the six-minute mark when he angled past the Calgary defender cutting to the net and taking a shot to the left of the crease, which evaded the goaltender.
The Warriors would regain their four-goal advantage, scoring their fifth goal on the powerplay just over a minute later. Calgary would get their sixth goal at the nine-minute mark and add one more in the final minute of the second to take a 7-1 lead into intermission.
In the third period, the Bombers scored their second goal at about the eight-minute mark, thanks to a long-range slapshot from the blueline by captain Clint Clark while on the powerplay. Cade Bohn drew the assist on the play.
Bohn would score Barrhead's third goal with an assist by Travis Gullion during four-on-four play seven minutes into the period.
Calgary would go on to score two more goals.
About six minutes later, Calgary scored its eighth goal. In the closing five minutes, Barrhead would take a series of penalties, leaving them short-handed most of the remainder of the game, including once when five Bombers were in the penalty box, resulting in prolonged stretches when the team was two short.
It was during this stretch, with about 2:20 left in the game, while they were two men down, that the Bombers scored their final goal when Christopher Vink forced the Warriors to cough up the puck at Barrhead blueline, allowing him to go in on a breakaway.
After the game, head coach Mario Haase said he was pleased with his team's effort, especially coming off a tough 15-0 road loss to the Hinton Timberwolves.
"Coming off a loss like that, and despite the score, the room was nothing but positive, and that is something we can build on," he said.
But having said that, Haase noted he realizes the team has a lot of work to do.
"A lot of work on structures, our discipline and they know it," he said. "We take everything we do, whether it is at practice or our video meetings and whether that is at practice, our video meetings and use it to create our next building block."
And Haase said they already have some building blocks to start on as a foundation, pointing specifically to the Bombers' penalty killing and goaltending.
The latter, he said, is especially strong, "I think we have the two best (Jace Berreth and John Zeise). Once we get our systems down and get the shots down to a more respectable level, I think people will really start to notice how strong they really are."
The Barrhead Bombers' next game is at home against the Hinton Timberwolves on Nov. 6. Puck drop is 2:45 p.m.
