The Flin Flon Bombers were one of the best teams at home in the SJHL regular season and that trend continued in the playoffs this past weekend.
Flin Flon is once again matched up with the Estevan Bruins, but this time the Maroon and White have home ice advantage.
And the B'S took advantage with a pair of wins by scores of 4 to 1 and 5 to 2, Friday and Saturday night.
In front of over 1100 fans on Friday, the Bombers jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead on goals from Dawson Karol, Cory King and Alexi Sylvestre.
The game did settle down and the teams played to a 1-1 draw the rest of the way.
The Bruins leading scorer Kade Runke had the lone goal for Estevan while Ethan Mercer scored a late power play goal for Flin Flon.
Harmon Laser Hume picked up his first ever playoff win with 29 saves.
The next night, the Bombers knew the Bruins would be much better and they had to be ready.
Both teams traded goals in the first with Flin Flon's Jaeden Mercier opening up the scoring. Mercier who just got back in the line-up was able to convert a nice feed from Kylynn Olafson to grab the 1-0 lead.
Estevan responded on a 5 minute powerplay when veteran defenseman Alexsa Babic, fired a shot past Laser Hume just inside the blue line with lots of traffic in front of the Flin Flon net.
The Bombers got the only goal in the second when Alexi Sylvestre jumped on a rebound in front of the Bruins net and flipped a puck over a fallen Cam Hrdlicka.
Flin Flon came out flying in the third and scored three goals in less than 6 minutes to blow the game open at 5 to 1.
Jacob Vockler and Brock Mueller both scored their first of the series with Ethan Mercer getting his second with another powerplay goal.
Jagjeevan Phangura scored a late goal for Estevan who dropped the second game by a score of 5 to 2 .
Harmon Laser Hume was solid in making 27 saves for his second playoff win.
I thought Bruin netminder Cam Hrdlicka played well despite giving up 5 goals on 41 shots and didn't have much of a chance on the goals that managed to beat him.
The Bombers had the second best powerplay in the league in the regular season and that continued in the opening two games of this series.
Flin Flon went 3 for 6 in the two games and if the Bruins are going to get back in this series they need to find an answer for when the Bombers have the extra attacker.
The Bombers did what they were expected to do and won both games at a very loud Whitney Forum to take a 2 games to none lead in the opening round best of 7.
We will see if Estevan can hold serve and win on their home turf when they host game's three and four at beautiful Affinity Place this Tuesday and Wednesday.
For as much as Estevan has struggled at the Whitney Forum, that go's ditto for the Bombers who only have one win in their last 7 in the energy city.
No matter what go's down, don't forget to tune in to both games from Estevan with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:40 both nights Manitoba time.
