Kyle Bosch, the leading scorer for the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers, lunges for a loose puck in front of Flin Flon Bombers goalie Jacob Delorme on Dec. 16 during a 3-1 win for the Klippers at the West Central Events Centre. The Klippers won two consecutive games versus the Bombers to go into their Christmas break with an excellent record of 8-1-0-1 in their last 10 games.

Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers have earned points in nine consecutive games, and the team is flying high after a pair of wins at home on the weekend.

Kindersley welcomed the Flin Flon Bombers for games on Saturday and Sunday, but the Bombers are not going to miss seeing the Klippers this regular season. Kindersley won by a score of 6-1 on Dec. 15 and 3-1 on Dec. 16 to improve to 8-1-0-1 over the team’s past 10 games.

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The Klippers also welcomed the league-leading Nipawin Hawks to the West Central Events Centre a week ago on Dec. 12, but the game did not end well for the home team. The Klippers came out on the wrong end of a shootout and the Hawks earned a 3-2 win.

Kindersley had a chance to tie Nipawin atop the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings with a win on Wednesday. Kindersley sits two points behind Nipawin in a tie for second place overall with the Melfort Mustangs. Nipawin has 50 points while Kindersley and Melfort both have 48 points.

The Klippers head to the break with an overall record of 22-8-2-2, and they are three points ahead of the Humboldt Broncos for first place in the Global Ag Risk Solutions division. The team has 12 days between games.

Kindersley never held a led in the Nipawin game. The teams traded goals in the second and third periods, and a goal by defenceman Blake Kleiner tied the game 2-2 with barely more than 90 seconds left in the third period. Kleiner also added an assist on Caden Benson’s goal in the second period and Ty Enns had assists on both goals. None of the team’s shooters managed to score in the shootout.

Flin Flon was the league’s highest scoring team heading into the weekend, but the Klippers held the Bombers to two goals in two games. Melfort scored 13 goals in two games to overtake Flin Flon as the league’s highest scoring team.

Nate Keeley scored a pair of goals in the 6-1 win including a shorthanded goal with five minutes left in the game. Benson, Kleiner, Cameron Shorrock and Tyler Traptow scored the other goals. Benson and Traptow each added an assist for two-point nights, but Kyle Bosch had a big game with four assists.

Benson, Clay Keeley and Liam Fraser scored Kindersley’s goals in the 3-1 win. The Klippers never trailed in either game and they swept the four-game season series against the Bombers. Kindersley won consecutive games in Flin Flon early in October.

Justen Close stopped 32 of 34 sahots in the Nipawin game and 38 of 39 shots in the 6-1 win over Flin Flon. The Klippers recorded fewer shots in each of those games. Zach Johnson was in for the 3-1 win on Sunday and he stopped 31 of 32 shots.

Coach Clayton Jardine said the team will not see the ice again until a practice on Dec. 27 ahead of a home-and-home series with the Battlefords North Stars on back-to-back nights. The Klippers play at home on Dec. 28 and in North Battleford on Dec. 29 to close out the schedule for 2018.

He noted that it was nice to pick up two wins and have a pair of solid performances going into the break. Jardine said the Flin Flon games were nice because both Close and Johnson had strong games for the team, and the Bombers are a good team.

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