The SJHL regular season wrapped up this weekend and the Flin Flon Bombers dropped both their games in Humboldt to a red hot Bronco team.
The Bronco's wrapped up the season 7 and 3 and were able to grab third spot overall with a 6 to 2 win on Friday and a 4 to 1 win last night.
Flin Flon, who have had first overall wrapped up for some time limp into the post season at 4-5-1 in their last ten games. What makes this concerning is that they only lost 9 games in regulation all year but 5 of those losses came in the last three weeks.
For what ever reason, the team is really struggling to score, especially 5 on 5 and could only muster three goals on the weekend with just one of those goals at even strength.
Gerome Gilbert was the only player to score an even strength goal, and it was actually a fluky goal when he flipped a puck towards the Humboldt net and caught Benjamin Motew napping as the puck beat him low glove side.
I think Gilbert was the most surprised person in the building as he was headed off the ice for a line change and just simply flipped the puck on net.
Alexi Sylvestre and Anthiny Piccininno were the only two other Bombers to hit the back of the net on the weekend as they both scored on the powerplay. Despite the Bombers offensive woes, Sylvestre continues to produce and has points in the last ten games.
There were also a number of defensive breakdowns which will have to be addressed heading into the post season. They will be a quick exit if they continue to turn over the puck like they have the last few weeks.
Mike Reagan was on the CFAR Post Game Show last night and says he has complete faith in his team that they will be able to bounce back when the playoffs start Friday.
Like Mike mentioned, they still had one of the best seasons in franchise history and finish the year at 44-9-2-1 and have earned the number one seed and home ice throughout the playoffs.
Flin Flon will face the Kindersley Klippers in the playoffs for the first time ever and will kick off the best of 7 opening round series this Friday and Saturday at the Whitney Forum.
The Klippers are back in the playoffs for the first time in 5 years and were also 4-5-1 in their last ten to finish 8th and earn a chance to face the Bombers. They lost their two final games to Battleford this weekend and blew a 2-0 lead last night losing 3 to 2.
The season series was 3-1 in Flin Flon's favour and they split the last two meetings in Kindersley, just a few weeks back on February the 23rd and 24th.
Once again every single Flin Flon Bomber playoff game will be broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com including the opening two games this weekend.
