It was a valiant effort but the Flin Flon Bombers dropped a 7 to 4 decision to the Battleford Stars on Saturday night and their season has come to an end.

 

The Stars sweep the Canterra Seeds Cup Final, 4 games to none and claim their second championship since 2019.

 

It was nice to see the Bombers come out skating and have nothing to hang their heads about as it was another exciting season.

 

Flin Flon wanted to get the big crowd into it early and they did when Jacob Vockler raced across the Battleford blue line and lifted a beautiful shot over Josh Kotai's left shoulder.

 

The Stars answered quickly as they have all series and tied the game when SJHL MVP, Josh Kesslering tied the game with a powerplay goal.

 

It looked like the Bombers luck might change when they regained the lead when Alexi Sylvestre beat Kotai with a nice wrist shot off the post to put Flin Flon up 2 to 1.

 

This was the Stars series  though and they were not going to be denied.

 

Jordan Grill scored a pair of goals to close out the opening period and the Stars would take a 3 to 2 lead to the locker room.

 

Battleford  would not relinquish the lead again and scored two more in the second courtesy of Colby Bear and Steven Kesslering's second of the night.

 

Down 5 to 2 to start the third, The crowd kept cheering and were hoping the Bombers would come out with one of their best periods of the season.

 

Flin Flon came out and had a terrific third period as Alexi Sylvestre would score two more goals for his first career SJHL hat-trick, and ended up with 9 total to lead his team in the post season.

 

Battleford got two more goals from two of their top snipers in Holden Doell and Kian Bell to make the final score 7 to 4.

 

The Bombers played their best game of the final and out shot the Stars 44 to 35 and had plenty of chances to win this game.

 

Early in the second,  Josh Kotai stopped a barage of shots including a wide open chance from Ethan Mercer which kept the Bombers at bay.

 

Harmon Laser Hume did everything he could to keep his team in the game and the series, but this Battleford team was too much and certainly deserved the results they got. You can see why they were the number one team in the country for much of the season.

 

Laser Hume would be the Bombers Playoff MVP, and they might not of got to  the finals if it wasn't for him. Who could ever forget his third period series save against the Estevan Bruins in the opening round. He was also dialled in against Humboldt in the Semi- Finals.

 

Congratulations to former Bomber Assistant Coach  Gary Childerhose who is now an Assistant with the Stars. He  got a nice reception from the crowd when he went out to collect his plaque after the game. 

 

Gary is a very nice young man and has worked very hard for every organization he has been a part of and this is well deserved.

 

Congratulations to Mike Reagan and the rest of the Flin Flon Bomber organization on getting to the league final for the fourth time in 6 years. That is no easy task.

 

It is great to be watching Bomber hockey this late into the season and great to see the Bomber nation stirred up and following this team every single game.

 

Good luck to the 8 graduating 20 year old's, Cole Duperreault, Zach Cain, Jaeden Mercier, Alex Von Sprecken, Reese Richmond, Cory King , Ethan Mercer and Bomber Captain Lucas Fry.

 

It was another tremendous ride that saw the organization produce 5 more  scholarships allowing Bomber players to get to the next level.

 

Head Coach Mike Reagan and Assistant Coach Cole McCaig were also signed to extensions and you know they will be able to put a competitive team back together once again.

 

The Awards Banquet will be the last order of business later  this week and we look forward to seeing you back at the rink in September.