It wasn't the start the Flin Flon Bombers were looking for or expecting to kick off the Canterra Seeds Cup final.
The Melfort Mustangs came into the Whitney Forum and blasted the Bombers by scores of 9 to 2 on Friday and a 4 to 1 win on Saturday, and are up 2 heading home for games three and four Wednesday and Thursday.
You have to tip your cap to the Mustangs who are taking advantage of all their opportunities and are limiting the Bomber offensive chances in tight.
Nothing against James Venne, but I don't feel the Bombers have tested him much in the first two games. Venne stopped 42 shots on Saturday, but most of them were dump in's or shots from the outside as the Mustangs didn't give the Bombers much in close.
Harmon Laser Hume on the other hand has been under siege, and has given up 11 goals on 55 shots in the first two games. Laser Hume got pulled on Friday after giving up 7 goals on 30 shots to make way for Kenny Marquart who gave up 2 goals on 10 shots.
I am sure there are some shots that Laser would like to get back, but his team simply has to play a lot better in front of him and he did play better Saturday giving up 3 goals on 24 shots. The Mustangs would add one into the empty net.
Flin Flon who had nothing but momentum in the first two series against Kindersley and Battleford have had next to none in this series.
The Bombers did open up the scoring in both games when Anthony Piccininno scored 7 minutes into the opening period in game one. Melfort's Tye Evans came back just 15 seconds later to tie it and they never looked back.
Bomber Captain Justin Lies scored early in game two when he re-directed a nice pass from Carter Anderson just past the 13 minute mark. This was Lies team leading 11th of the playoffs who also scored a 5 on 3 powerplay goal in game one.
Once again the lead was short lived when stand out defenseman Chase Friedt Mohr would tie the game with a short handed break away.
Melfort rolled from there with Rhett Hamilton and the Cox boys, Danton and Logan both scoring insurance goals.
It is not like the Bombers didn't have their chances going 0 for 8 on the powerplay which included a 5 minute major and a 4 minute double minor late.
The Mustang penalty kill was excellent and was one of the big factors in the game and ended up going 0 for 3 with the extra attacker.
The Bombers have dug a hole losing the first two games at home and out scored 13 to 3 in the two games with only Justin Lies and Anthony Piccininno finding the back of the net.
We will see how they battle through this adversity in a must win at the Northern Lights Palace on Wednesday night. The Bombers need to penetrate that Melfort defense and start getting to the net and some secondary scoring would also be nice.
Don't forget to join us on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 8:10 MB time.
