Don't look now, but the Flin Flon Bombers are headed back to the SJHL Final for the fifth time in the last 7 years.
The Bombers punched their ticket with a 5 to 1 win last night in the Battlefords to sweep the SJHL Semi- Final against the defending champs four straight.
Once again the Maroon and White Express played a very solid game and hit the back of the net just 33 seconds in, when Koen Senft took a nice feed from Alexi Sylvestre and fired a laser over Logan Cunningham's left shoulder.
Senft had a great semi- final that included 5 points in the last two games.
Hunter Burgeson would tie the game on the powerplay when he banged in a rebound at the side of the net, but that would be the only puck to beat Harmon Laser Hume all night.
The game wouldn't stay tied for long as the Bomber Captain Justin Lies would score a powerplay goal of his own, when he finished up a nice tic tac toe play with Alexi Sylvestre and Noah Houle that would stand up as the game winner.
This was Lies league leading 9th of the playoffs and you could argue the best player in the playoffs so far, although the Bombers are getting contibutions from everybody.
Matt Egan, Anthony Piccininno and Adam McNutt all addded goals as the Bombers dominated in every aspect of the game and picked up the 5 to 1 win to sweep the series.
Harmon Laser Hume was outstanding once again and ended up with 35 saves on 36 shots and is sitting with a staggering .955 save % so far in the post season.
Laser Hume made a lot of timely saves and had everybody at the Access Community Centre in disbelief with a lot of his saves through out the series. The big stop on the Stars Josh Medernach in game three comes to mind, when he got his left pad out to rob Medernach who had a wide open net to shoot at and couldn't believe he didn't score.
You also have to hand it to Logan Cunningham the Stars goalie who played his heart out, but they just didn't have the horses in front of him that could add any offense to help him out.
Flin Flon has reeled off 8 straight wins in the playoffs and their 5 on 5 play is one of the biggest reasons. The Bombers out scored the Stars 20 to 8 and only gave up 2 goals even strength the entire series. They didn't give up a single goal 5 on 5 in the opening round against Kindersley.
This team is dialled in defensively and they are getting contibutions from every single line and don't have to depend on their top offensive players to do all the scoring.
That was another difference in this series with 11 different Bombers finding the back of the net with only three from the Battlefords able to do so.
I would like to wish Head Coach of the Stars Brayden Klimosko and the rest of the Stars the best of luck heading into next season, and thank them for all the great hockey they have brought to the province the last several seasons.
The Stars had one of the best seasons in SJHL history last year and not only took home the league championship but ended up second in the country and you know they will be back. They have a very strong program.
Good luck to Mike Reagan, Cole McCaig and the rest of the Bomber organization as they head to the finals once again. Here is hoping they can finally get over the bubble and bring home the franchises first championship in over 30 years.
It won't be easy as they will face either the Melfort Mustangs or Humboldt Broncos, two very strong teams in their own right, but who said it was supposed to be easy.
That series is 2-1 in favour of Melfort after Humboldt won in triple ot last night. Flin Flon will open up the Canterra Seeds Cup Final against the winner one week from this Friday and we look forward to seeing you back at the rink.
