Tyler Traptow (16) and other members of the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers converge on Devon Cyr after the forward opened the scoring on a power play during a 5-1 win on Oct. 2 versus the Nipawin Hawks at the West Central Events Centre. Cyr had a big game, scoring two goals and adding an assist as the Klippers downed the top-ranked junior A team in the country.

Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers are on a three-game winning streak and the team is now preparing for a pair of home games this Friday and Saturday.

The Klippers rode into Flin Flon last weekend and won a pair of Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League games on back-to-back nights against the Bombers. The two road wins were a curtain call to a big win at home on Tuesday when the Klippers defeated the previously unbeaten Nipawin Hawks by a score of 5-1.

The game against the Hawks on Oct. 2 came after the Klippers had lost three of their four previous games after getting off to a hot start. The Klippers then travelled to Flin Flon for games on Friday and Saturday. Kindersley won by a score of 4-2 on Oct. 5 and 2-1 in a shootout on Oct. 6 to hit seven wins this season.

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With a record of 7-3 early in the season, the Klippers sit second in their division a point behind the Humboldt Broncos and tied for second overall in the SJHL standings.

Justen Close started in net for all three wins.

Another local product, Kyle Bosch, has taken over the team lead in scoring with three goals and six assists for nine points in 10 games. A line of centre Nate Keeley and wingers Caden Benson and Devon Cyr had a big night against Nipawin with a combined three goals and five assists.

Cyr had two goals and an assist while Benson picked up a goal and two helpers, and Keeley picked up a pair of assists. Keeley also picked up a goal and an assist on Friday in Flin Flon and Bosch also had a goal and an assist in the 4-2 win.

The score on Friday is a bit deceiving because Flin Flon outplayed Kindersley. The Bombers won the battle when it came to shots on net. Flin Flon had 44 shots on net to only 30 for the Klippers, but Close stopped 42 of the 44 shots. In fact, Close stopped 95 of 100 shots in the three games.

Clayton Jardine, head coach of the Klippers, said a combination of three main factors helped to propel the team to three straight wins last week. He said timely scoring, great play in net and solid defence were key in the wins, and “it was just a combination of everything coming together.”

The 5-1 win over Nipawin was impressive, he agreed. The Hawks are the top ranked team by the Canadian Junior Hockey League for the second week in a row and they were undefeated before last week’s game in Kindersley.

Jardine said it is still early, but the guys have really come together. He said it all starts from the net out, and goaltending has been good. Close has the best goals-against-average (1.99) and second best save percentage (.935) among goalies that have played six or more games.

The coach said he decided to play Close in back-to-back games after facing 44 shots on Friday night because he decided to ride the hot goalie. Jardine said he has told both goalies he intends to ride the hot goalie all season long, so they know the drill.

He noted that the message to Close was “stay hot” because Johnson will get his chances to play should he cool off. According to Jardine, the team played better on Saturday than Friday and Close bailed out the team in the first game.

“Friday I thought they outplayed us and (Close) played really well, but we got some timely goal scoring and we came back in the third period,” he said, recognizing that it was 2-1 for Flin Flon after two periods. “We outplayed them on Saturday, so I was proud of the guys.”

The said the team was outplayed on Friday and he knew the Bombers would not want to lose in their rink on two consecutive nights, but the guys battled in a closely fought game and the Klippers came out on top in the end.

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