The wait is over and the Flin Flon Bombers finally know who they will be facing in the opening round of the SJHL playoffs starting tonight at the Whitney Forum.
The Bombers have had second overall wrapped up for the last few weeks, but seeds 3 through 8 took til the final game of the regular season to work it self out.
The Humboldt Bronco's will get 7th, after six straight wins to end the season including a 3 to 1 win over Melville on Tuesday to close out the SJHL regular season.
It looked like the Bronco's wanted the 8th seed and a date with the defending SJHL champion Battleford Stars. Head Coach, Scott Barney rested a lot of his regulars and even pulled the goalie with his team ahead in the third period to try and give Melville the advantage, but the Mills couldn't find the empty net.
Saying that, I like Humboldt's club and I think they are going to give Flin Flon every thing that they can handle in this best of 7.
They are the third highest scoring team in the league with 219 goals, 46 less then the league leading Bombers. They also have a good PP, and were only second to Flin Flon at 23.1 %.
The Bombers ended up at 27.9 %.
What makes this match up even more interesting is they haven't played each other since December the 12th and Flin Flon did win the season series 4 games to 2 . The Bronco's have added the likes of forward Luke Spadafora and d-man Doug Scott and look a lot different since the last time they played the Bombers.
Humboldt does come in the hotter of the two teams with 6 straight wins, while the Bombers dropped their last 3 games and are 3-5-2 in their last 10.
Flin Flon will get the luxury of starting the series at home and Head Coach and GM, Mike Reagan is excited about starting the playoffs. " We have been sitting in limbo for the last three weeks, wrapping up second place so early. We have had the flu bug go through us with a few injuries. We know we haven't played our best hockey down the stretch but it is tough with trying to get healthy to patting stats that really don't mean anyything. The guys are excited with a couple good day's of practise and we know Humboldt is a good, fast, young energetic team that will give us all we can handle."
This is the first playoff meeting for the two teams since 2013, when the Bronco's swept the Bombers four straight on their way to the league final.
They have met in the post season, 8 times with Humboldt winning the series on 6 occasions. The Bronco's have an time playoff record against the Bombers at 24-10.
The First two games will be played at the Whitney Forum, tonight and tomorrow, with game's three and four at the Elgar Peterson Arena next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Remember with the time change this weekend the games in Humboldt will start at 8:30.
102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com will broadcast every single Bomber playoff game starting tonight with the Pharmasave Coach's Show at 7:10.
