The Flin Flon Bombers looked like the team that was number one in the country for much of the season, as they took it to the Kindersley Klippers this past weekend to open up their SJHL Quarter Final series.
After a sluggish opening period to open things up on Friday, it was complete domination by the home squad the rest of the way and they took both games handilly 4 to 0 on Friday and a convincing 8 to 0 win on Saturday.
There were some concerns about Flin Flon's offensive production down the final stretch of the regular season, but they had no trouble finding the back of the net to start the post season.
There is just something magical about the Bombers at this time of the year and the guys Flin Flon needs to score did just that. Alexi Sylvestre and Jacob Vockler did a lot of the damage scoring 7 of the team's 12 goals to open the series.
Sylvestre had a hat-trick on Saturday with all his goals coming in the first period. Vockler opened up the scoring just three minutes into game one and added a pair on Saturday.
Justin Lies, Carter Anderson, Kylynn Olafson, Keefe Gruner and Anthony Bax also found the back of the net to put the Bombers in a nice position heading to Kindersley.
The SJHL Goalie Of The Year, Harmon Laser Hume continued his great play in the playoffs stopping all 58 shots fired in his direction for back to back shutouts.
Specialty teams are always big in the playoffs and they were certainly a factor in games one and two of this series. Kindersley couldn't generate anything what so ever on the powerplay, and were a combined 0 for 8 in the two games. The Bombers mean while went 4 for 8.
Flin Flon had the best powerplay and penalty kill in the regular season and took over right where they left off to start the post season.
Flin Flon fought hard for home ice advantage all season and it has paid off with a two games to none lead and the pressure on the Klippers who don't have much more room for error.
Saying that, all teams are better at home and Kindersley was a much better home team than road team this season. The Klippers were 16-8-4 at home and just 7-18-1-2 on the road.
We all know how good the Bombers are at the Whitney Forum at 24-2-1-1 but they also had the best road record at 20-7-1. This is also a very veteran team that have won a lot of big games the last few seasons and have lots of playoff experience.
Kindersley hasn't been in the post season in 5 years and will have to dig real deep to try and get even, but anything is possible in the SJHL.
A jam packed West Central Events Centre is expected for Tuesday and Wednesday as Kindersley is jacked to be back in the post season. You will be able to catch both games on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com with the Great North GM Coach's Show both nights at 8:10 Manitoba time.
