It's not the way the Flin Flon Bombers wanted to start their opening round playoff series against the Battleford Stars.

 

Flin Flon dropped both games at Access Comunications Centre on the weekend by scores of 7 to 3 and 4 to 2 last night.

 

On Friday night, specialty teams were the difference with the Stars connecting on 2 pp opportunities while the Bombers went 0 for 5.

 

The Stars also scored a big short handed goal with only 12 seconds remaining in the first period Friday.

 

Flin Flon came out hard and played their best period of hockey the last month and did get rewarded with a quick goal by Mason Kaspick.

 

The lead was short lived and the Stars took advantage of every good scoring chance that they got the rest of the way.

 

Their captain, Ryland McNinch did most of the damage by registering his first career playoff hat-trick. He scored them all in different ways including the pp, short handed and 5 on 5.

 

The Bombers did have the edge in play,  but the return of goalie Michael Harrach was the difference making 47 saves including many quality chances in the opening period.

 

Gabriel Shipper and Jacob Vockler did find the back of the net but it wasn't enough as the Stars won 7 to 3.

 

It sure didn't seem like a 7 to 3 game and the Bombers deserved better than what they got and vowed that they would be better on Saturday.

 

The game unfortunately  didn't start well with rookie sensation Jake Southgate putting the Stars up early 2 to 0.

 

Southgate scored on the Stars first shot of the game when he was able to score from the corner finding a gap between Cal Schell's pad and the post.

 

He would also score on the pp just 3 minutes later.

 

Flin Flon did shake off the rough start and Jacob Vockler scored  his second in as many nights when he took advantage of a great drop pass from Drew Kuzma late in the first.

 

The offense once again dried up after that with the Stars bearing down and not allowing the Bombers to get a lot of chances in tight.

 

Battleford got a couple of insurance goals from Dace Prymak and Steven Kesserling to jump out 4 to 1.

 

Flin Flon did fianally get a power play goal when Rylan Thiessen snuck a shot under the bar with only 37 seconds left in the game. Hopefully they can build on this for the series shifting to Flin Flon.

 

Specialty teams have been a big factor with the Bombers going 1 for 8 in the first two games while the Stars are 4 for 9 with a short handed goal.

 

Cal Schell has also struggled a litttle in the first two games and has stopped 48 out of 64 shots and seems to be fighting the puck a little. His counterpart,  Michael Harroch who is coming back from a month long injury has been real good making 76 saves on 81 shots.

 

Hopefully the Bombers with a couple days off, can regroup and find a way to get their offense back and start executing their specialty teams to get back in the series.

 

They are back at the Whitney Forum where they went 21-6-1-1 in the regular season. We all know the Whitney Forum can be a tough spot for the visitors and if the Bombers can rebound in game 3, this series may be a long way from being over.

 

No question, if the Bombers are going to come back they need a good effort with a different result on Tuesday just to give them some much needed life. 

 

No matter what go's down,  you will get the best seat in the house with all the action on your Bomber Playoff Station 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

 

We hit the air with the Great North GM  Coach's Shows tuesday and Wednesday at 7:10.