Fresh off a 6-5 shootout win over Yorkton on Tuesday, the Flin Flon Bombers will take on the Melfort Mustangs in a home and home series this weekend.
The defending league champs made quite the splash earlier this week picking up Hanson and Bear from Melville for 17 year old defenseman Curran Reeve and futures, which is believed to be 2 players for next season.
Melfort already has a deep squad up front and have sent a message to the rest of the SJHL clubs, that taking away their league championship is not going to come easy.
The Mustangs are second in goals for with 144, and have only 1 regulation loss at home this season and are very stingy only giving up 101 goals this year, which is third behind Laronge and Weyburn.
Melfort continue to lead the Sherwood Division with a remarkable 26-7-3-1 record, and are second overall with 56 points. They trail Battleford by a point with 2 games in hand .
Flin Flon has Nipawin in their sights , they are 6 points behind them for second in the Sherwood with 2 games in hand.
The January 10th deadline is fast approaching for Sunday, and this weekend should be a good measuring stick for what Mike Reagan decides to do the rest of the way.
It appears he will most likely have to move outside the league, with all of Melville's 20's being moved including Predinchuk being dealt to Estevan yesterday. Humboldt has also sent hometown product Jarret Fontaine to Weyburn taking him off of a lot of SJHL team wish lists.
I don't think Reagan has to panic as his team has been one of the hottest and most fun to watch the last couple of months, and are winners of 13 out of their last 16 games.
The trio of Smith, Switzer and Kocur have combined for 146 points and all 3 are in the league top 10 in scoring, and it should be fun to see them go head to head with the Mustang trio of Mayan, Frei and Boyer.
The Bombers have played the mustangs well, and have held them to 3 goals in the 2 meetings in Melfort, which may be one of the reasons that Trevor Blevins decided to make this trade with Melville.
Keep in mind that Flin Flon had a lot of injuries in those games, and for the first time since early October, the Bombers have been able to ice their top team with Empey, Lacoursiere and Masson all back from lengthy injuries.
This should be a great weekend of hockey with Bomber fans getting a chance to check out the new Mustangs club tonight, before the return affair in Melfort tomorrow, broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.
Congratulations to Bomber defenseman Cory Thomas on being selected to play in the CJHL Top Prospects Game January the 26th in Surrey BC. Thomas has suited up for 22 games for the Bombers this year picking up 1 goal and 3 assists.
Thomas is the only player from the SJHL chosen to play in this game and is the first Bomber picked since Brett Boehm in 2013.
Hope to see you at both rinks this weekend.
