We are almost through the entire SJHL season and the Flin Flon Bombers will play the Battleford Stars for the first time this weekend.
Both teams are near the top of the standings and are battling for third overall.
Flin Flon sits in third at: 29-12-2-1, good for 61 points while Battleford is 25-11-5-1 and have 56 points. The Stars also have 2 games in hand.
Both teams are very similar and have very quick talented forwards with the offense very well spread out.
Flin Flon has scored 164 goals in 44 games while the Stars have found the back of the net 154 times in 42 games.
Zac Smith is the only Bomber player in the top 20 in league scoring but Flin Flon does have 6 players with at least 30 points.
Jake Southgate would be the only Battleford player in the top 20 but the Stars scoring is also spread out with 5 of their players with at least 30 points.
Both these teams have been pleasant surprises and were not expected to be in contention for a league title. no one knew heading into the season that the Bombers would be able to score enough.
The Stars were considered to be at least a year away with only a handful of 20 year olds but have exceeded expectations and are a team to contend with right now.
Both teams also have excellent goaltending with the Bombers being led by Cal Schell who is once again having a career season. Schell is fresh off his league leading 5th shutout against Weyburn.
I apologize as I reported that he had tied the Bomber season record of 5 with Danny Dennis who did it in 1992-93. It turns out the record is 6 and was accomplished by Zac Robidoux who did it in the 2016-17 season.
Robidoux also has the Bomber all time record of 11 which he did in an amazing 73 games. Sorry for all the confusion.
Cal will still get a chance to tie or beat the record with 14 games remaining on the season.
The Stars are led by a former Humboldt Bronco in Michael Harroch. Harroch has emerged as their undisputed number one and is 12-3-3-1 on the year with two shutouts.
This will be a special weekend as former Bomber Assistant Coach, Gary Childerhose will make his much awaited return to Flin Flon.
Gary spent 5 years with the Bombers between 2014 and 19 and was with them for their two trips to the league final. Childerhose was very instrumental in helping many of the Bomber players get to the NCAA.
This is Childerhose's first season as the Assistant with his hometown Northstars and it will be great to see Chilly at the rink once again.
Join us for all the action from the Whitney Forum tonight including the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:10 and drop of the puck at 7:30 on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.
