The SJHL regular season has come to an end and it was one of the most impressive in Flin Flon Bombers history. The Bombers will end the year at 41-11-3-1, good for 86 points and a first place overall finish.
The Bombers also went 27-0-1 at the Whitney Forum and are the first team in the SJHL since the 1981-82 Prince Albert Raiders to not lose a single game in regulation throughout the entire regular season. Impressive indeed.
Flin Flon wrapped up the year this past weekend taking 3 of 4 points against the Laronge Ice Wolves including a 3 to 1 win on Friday night at the Whitney Forum.
Ice Wolf netminder Graham Brown had one of the best goaltending performances I have seen in a long time and he was the biggest reason the Bombers never blew them out.
The Bombers put up 47 shots in the game and 18 alone in the first period, but Brown was rock solid and put on a performance for the ages with many dazzling spectacular stops.
Nathan Lalumiere was able to pocket his 8th when he was alone in front of the Laronge net early in the second period and banged home a rebound to open the scoring for Flin Flon.
Kyle Marsden suited up for Flin Flon for the first time since the pre season and he ended up scoring the eventual game winner when he drove to the net and converted a beautiful Rhett Ewen pass for his first of the season on the powerplay.
The building erupted and the Bomber players mobbed Marsden as he skated by the bench after his big goal. Marsden just got cleared to play that day and seized the opportunity in what has been a frustrating season for the veteran Bomber Defenseman.
Laronge only managed 11 shots in the game but managed to make it a one goal game late in the third when Waylon Gardipy was left alone in front of the Bomber net and scored his 11th of the season.
With the goalie pulled the Bombers one the faceoff in their own zone and Reid Arberry sent a shot down the ice that found the open net and Flin Flon picked up the 3 to 1 victory. The Bombers heavily outshot the Wolves 47 to 11, but Graham Brown almost stole this one in his final game ever at the Whitney Forum as he is 20 and will age out after this season. I am sure it is a game he will never forget.
These two teams would make their way to Laronge to finish the regular season in a Saturday matinee game at the Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre.
Once again goals were tough to come by and the Wolves managed to pick up their first win against Flin Flon this season by squeaking out a 2 to 1 win in OT.
Brown was great again this time stopping 41 of 42 and the only goal to beat him was Rhett Ewen banging in a loose puck in front of the Wolf net late in the first period.
Laronge opened up the scoring just 1:17 into the opening period with Grayden Perozni finishing up a nice passing play with Waylon Gardipy and Oliver Chistiansen.
Finn Werner got the start and made some timely saves and ended up with 24 saves on 26 shots and ends the season at 13-2-0-1 with a very impressive save % of .925.
Waylon Gardipy had a great series for Laronge as he had a three point weekend and scored the OT winner when he led a rush down the ice and snapped home his 12th of the season.
The Burbot came flying on the ice as the Wolves won for just the 11th time this season and were able to wrap up the season on a positive note.
Laronge did get a big lift late in the year when legendary bench boss Bob Beatty came out of retirement and took the coaching reigns in the absence of Kevin Kaminski who took a personal leave.
Beatty has had a lot of success in the SJHL and in Laronge where he won back to back league championships in the mid 2000’s. The kids really took to him and were playing a lot better at the end of the season.
It will be interesting to see what Laronge does heading into next year to try and turn the franchise around.
Flin Flon will now prepare for the SJHL Playoffs and their first round opponent the Estevan Bruins. The Bombers are the top seed while the Bruins snagged the 8th and final spot on the second last day of the season.
This will be the third playoff meeting between these two teams since 2022 and both those series went the full 7 games including a very exciting league final in 2022. This looks like a mismatch on paper with the Bombers finishing 29 points higher than the Bruins, but we all know anything can happen at playoff time.
The series is expected to start at the Whitney Forum this Friday and Saturday before heading south the following Tuesday and Wednesday but nothing is confirmed.
Flin Flon took 3 of the 4 regular season meetings but Estevan has some very dangerous players and the Bombers have been battling a ton of injuries so we will see what happens. I am sure it won’t take long to rekindle this great rivalry.
