It has been a weekend that a lot of hockey fans have been waiting for and counting down the days as the Battleford Stars will finally make their way to the Whitney Forum this weekend.

 

It will be the Stars first visit since last spring's opening round playoff series exit in 6 games. Battleford led it two games to none before the Bombers caught fire in front of a big crowd for game 3 and never looked back.

 

The two teams have met twice this season back in the Battlefords on November the 18th and 19th. They  had to play the first game in Wilkie, then the Battleford Arena due to ice problems at the Civic Centre.

 

Battleford took both contests by scores of 5 to 2 and  4 to 3 in OT. The Stars are putting together one of the best seasons in league history and are running away in the overall standings at 40-3-2-1 and have 83 points.

 

That is 20 more than both the Bombers and Humboldt Broncos, who are tied for second overall.

 

They have only lost 3 games in regulation all season and two of those have come against the Humboldt Broncos.

 

There are lots of reasons for the Stars success this year including the top line of Holden Doell, Kian Bell and Jeff Southgate. These three players are the top three scorers in the league and have combined for 221 points so far this year.

 

Battleford has also gotten very good goaltending out of Josh Kotai and Justin Maric.

 

Kotai leads the league in pretty much every goaltending statistik including wins with 27 and a sizzling save % of .937. His backup Justin Maric isn't bad either at 13-1 and a save % of .932.

 

Congratulations to Kotai who has just received an NCAA scholarship to play for Augustans next season.

 

The Bombers will have their work cut out for them in no matter what goalie they face.

 

Flin Flon comes into the weekend playing some good hockey of their own and are 6-1 in their last 7 including a 3 and 1 road trip down south last week.

 

After the Battleford trio of Bell, Doell and Southgate, the Bombers have the fourth, fifth and sixth overall scorers.

 

Cole Duperreault is having a masterful season with 61 points in 42 games and has scored 36 goals which is second behind Bell with 43. Right behind him is Jeremi Tremblay with 55 points including 27 goals and the injured Jaeden Mercier with 50 points.

 

It looks like Mercier will be out the rest of the season with a broken ankle but will hopefully be back for playoffs. Mercier's absence has definately hurt the Bomber powerplay which has dropped 4 % since he has been out for the last 7 games.

 

It was nice to see Flin Flon get some secondary scoring the last trip with Matt Egan, Kylynn Olafson and Joey Lies all finding the back of the net.

 

The Bombers wil have to continue to get secondary scoring this weekend if they are going to knock off the Stars.

 

Flin Flon will also be looking forward to welcoming back former Assistant Coach, Gary Childerhose who spent 5 seasons with the Maroon and including a couple trips to the league final.

 

Gary has been an assistant with his home town Stars the past couple of years and was very popular during his time in Flin Flon. 

 

A capacity crowd is expected tonight as it is Hockey Night In The North. That means that tonight's game is absolutely free for anybody who would like to attend.

 

A big thanks to tonight's sponsors, City  Of Flin Flon, Town Of Creighton, Village Of Denare Beach and Hudbay who are fitting the bill so you don't have to. 

 

You can also catch both games this weekend on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com. Both games start at 7:10 with the Great North GM Coach's Show.