Despite several good scoring opportunities, the Flin Flon Bombers came up short in a 5 to 1 setback last night at the White Cap Resources Centre in Weyburn, and now the best of 7 SJHL Semi Final is all tied at 3 games a piece with the Weyburn Red Wings.
Flin Flon had several good scoring chances including Daniel Morozov who was awarded a penalty shot early in the first period, but got stopped by Wing netminder Joey Rocha who was on his game once again. Weyburn caught fire and took the momentum and never looked back after that.
Specialty teams were a big factor as Weyburn went 2 for 2 with the extra attacker,scoring twice on a 5 on 3.
Josh Sale and Jase McNichol scored 38 seconds apart in the second period, and that was all the offense Weyburn would need to pick up the win and send it back to Flin Flon for game 7 tomorrow night.
Sale would score two more goals for his first career SJHL hat-trick to give him a whopping 8 points in the series. Aidan Mohan scored the other Weyburn goal.
Bomber defenseman Ryder Knutson was the only Flin Flon player to beat Joey Rocha . jumping on a rebound late in the second period.
That got the Bombers within two at 3 to 1 after two, but despite a good effort, just couldn't get any more pucks past Rocha who wasn't going to be denied this night. Rocha finished with 31 saves on 32 shots.
Flin Flon went 0 for one with the extra attacker in their lone opportunity.
Bombers starting goalie Charlie Tritt played well despite giving up 4 goals on 31 shots as there was also a goal scored into the empty net. Tritt did everything he could to keep his team in the game and is providing good enough goaltending for his team to win.
Flin Flon needs to start burying and will have to empty the tank for the pivotal game 7 at the Whitney Forum tomorrow night. The Bombers finished first overall and were nearly perfect at home going 27-0-1 in the regular season, and were able to win back home ice advantage in this series and always feed off the very boisterous loud crowd.
Weyburn won the very first game in Flin Flon , but the Bombers took game three by a score of 2 to 1 in Weyburn to restore home ice advantage, and are way more comfortable at the Whitney Forum then they are at the White Cap Resources Centre in Weyburn.
This is why you fight so hard for home ice advantage, just in case you get into a game 7 situation, you want to make sure you are on home ice.
Weyburn will try for the upset and try to knock off the Bombers for the second straight year in the SJHL Semi Final. Flin Flon will be looking to get back to the league final for the fourth time in the last 5 years. No matter what happens this has been a very hard fought entertaining series between two of the league's elite clubs.
Puck drop is at 7:30 pm and will be broadcast once again on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com, with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:10pm.
